The life of a little girl with brain damage is about to change forever - thanks to your generosity.

A campaign to raise money for five-year-old Elke Wisbey has so far reached £6,682, but if everyone pays the money they have promised it will take the family to their £17,500 target.

The story of the bubbly youngster from Bearsted who has had problems since birth and will never be able to walk or speak for herself, has inspired huge acts of generosity from readers, all wanting to help Elke’s family buy a specialist piece of equipment to help her communicate.

Now the race is on to collect all the money so that the equipment can be ordered before the youngster goes back to school on Tuesday.

Family friend Chris Sheppard, who owns All Wellan Good in Chatham and Revlon in Ashford, is expecting to raise £10,000 for the fund from collection boxes and the sale of clearance lines at his outlets nationwide, which will be added to Elke’s account by the end of this week.

School friend Owen West, who suffers from developmental delay, ditched his wheelchair to take part in a sponsored walk for Elke with the help of his mother and brother.

The Body Shop and Mall Chequers in Maidstone have both pledged sums, and some money is still owed from a sponsored walk in Mote Park.

If all the promised money is donated, they will have the £17,500 needed to buy a MyTobii Smartbox which would track Elke’s eye movements and enable her to tell people if she’s tired, hungry or thirsty.

Her mother Glynnis said: “It’s going to change our lives completely.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by people’s support, it takes some people years to raise this kind of money and we’ve done it in a summer.

“If it wasn’t for the KM, the Body Shop, Wellan Good and Elke’s godparents it wouldn’t have been possible.”

Now the family are appealing to anyone with outstanding sponsorship money to get in it this week, so that they can order the Smartbox from Sweden and start teaching Elke how to use it as soon as possible.

The money can be paid into Elke’s HSBC bank account (managed by Jenny Jarvis. Sort Code: 40-24-44; Account No: 10035378; Account Name: Elke Wisbey.