A community is rallying together to help recover the loss of vital funds for an end-of-life charity after the vandalism of its statues.

Heart of Kent Hospice said it was “heartbroken” following the recent destruction of two sculptures from its Shaun the Sheep art trail.

The interactive activity launched in July with 51 hand painted sculptures of the iconic children’s character dotted around Maidstone.

When the trail ends they are due to be auctioned off for up to £5,000 a piece, with all funds going towards the hospice.

But last week the charity revealed two sculptures were deliberately damaged beyond repair resulting in them being permanently removed from the trail.

Community members outraged by the vandalism are now fundraising to recover the money lost.

Allington resident, Kristen Corsie set up a JustGiving page after seeing the announcement of the incident.

She said: “It was heartbreaking and made me feel angry, and then seeing the loss of £10,000 made me really angry.

“The biggest thing for me is we’ve all been touched in some shape or form by someone who has needed care.

“You never know when someone needs help.

“We need to support what we have around us – we’re really privileged to have it [the hospice].”

At the time of writing, the fundraiser - one of two set up to aid the cause of restoring the hospice’s lost funds - has generated more than £750 in donations. You can find the page here.

Over the weekend police issued an appeal to help trace three men wanted over the destruction of the sculptures.

CCTV footage showed the suspects wrecking the “Shikki” Shaun sculpture, which was in the balcony area of Fremlin Walk and “Cherry” Shaun in Brenchley Gardens.

The latter sheep was sponsored by Parkfoot Garage in West Malling.

Owner of the store David Charman said: “Everyone was probably shocked more than anything else that anybody would enter a children’s playground and do the damage they’ve done.

“We had every intention of buying our own Shaun and having him at Parkfoot for the rest of his days – and of course now that’s not possible.”

The team have since set up their own JustGiving page where they will be matching the money raised up to the amount they would have spent at the auction – £5,000.

The store is also taking donations via a pot at the tills with £200 collected so far.

Speaking on people’s generosity, David said: “It’s a amazing – it’s almost a voice for people to say ‘We won’t be beaten on this.’”

Heart of Kent Hospice are also accepting charity donations via their web page which can be found here.

So far they have received £2,500 of the £10,000 target directly.

Project manager for the art trail Erica Snow said: “It’s been amazing to receive so many lovely messages of support from the public and our sponsors after the recent vandalism to two of our Shaun Sculptures.

“The Maidstone community has been nothing short of incredible with their response.”

There are just a couple days left before people say goodbye to the sheep on September 1.

Between September 13 to 15 all the remaining characters will be placed together in the Market Hall in Lockmeadow for a “farewell weekend”.

Later in the month, the hospice will be holding a charity auction at the Clive Emson Conference centre to give a Shaun their forever home.