A qualified art teacher who spends her free time painting 'fairy doors' in County Durham said she felt like her heart had been "ripped out" after discovering her work had been vandalised.
Karen Gray had spent months painting 'fairy doors' on the trees in South Moor Colliery Park, in Stanley. And a trail to see each creation had become a much-loved source of entertainment for children in the local community.
But on Friday evening Karen visited the park and found 37 of the 80 doors had been vandalised and spray painted black, leaving her and many members of the community devastated.
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Karen, from Stanley, said: "When I got down to the park and saw they were all spray painted black, I cried. I cried all night on Friday. I was absolutely devastated. It felt like my heart had been ripped out."
"It was like walking through a dead forest, it was awful. Everything had been painted black, whereas before it had been beautiful little painted doors in pretty colours. It was heartbreaking."
Karen, 50, started painting the 'fairy doors' in the park days before the Easter holidays and would go out as early as 5.30am to create new ones so she wouldn't be spotted by anyone in the hope of "keeping the mystery alive".
She said before she started painting the doors the park had few visitors. But now it is often busy with families taking part in the fairy door trail, especially at weekends.
And she even leaves gifts hidden in the park 'from the fairies' with clues to their location posted on the Fairy Door Art Facebook page for the children to find.
The vandalism of the fairy doors was met with so much devastation from the community that Karen went back to the park the following morning and spent eight hours repainting each door, which can take between 20 minutes and two hours to create, depending on its size.
A second member of the community, who Karen had never met before, soon joined her to repaint the doors after hearing about the vandalism. And as news got round, around 30 members of the community all came together to help restore the trail which has brought happiness to so many families.
Karen said: "About 30 residents came out to help paint the doors back on and it made me feel so happy I could cry, compared to the night before."
She added: "One bloke came up to me and asked if I was the person behind it. I said yes and he gave me £10 to get new brushes and paints. He said he's brought his children down to the park last weekend and when he saw the post about what had happened he was so upset he started crying."
Karen said she first got the idea for painting the 'fairy doors' when she moved to the area in 2014 after spotting an area on a tree where she thought it would look good. But it took her until 2022 to pluck up the courage to start creating them.
She explained that she has fond memories of her own childhood looking for fairies and now she is helping create the same 'magical' memories for children in Stanley.
Karen said: "All the way through my childhood my mam made me believe in fairies. I remember walking through the woods and my mam saying 'see that, that's a fairy door. If you knock and you wait you might see them peep out.'
"I used to stand there for ages with my breath held thinking if I wait I might see them."
Speaking about creating the painted doors, she added: "It takes up a lot of time, but it's my relaxing time. It helps me put the day behind me and just relax. It's so therapeutic, I love it."
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