A WEYMOUTH man who struggles with a form of autism has raised money for a community farm by using his daily exercise during lockdown to complete a sponsored walk.

Matthew Vincent, 26, suffers from Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), which falls under the autistic spectrum. Individuals with FXS typically have emotional, behavioural and learning difficulties.

Every year, Matthew and his mother Dawn go on a sponsored walk to raise money for a charity close to Matthew's heart. As the pair often visit Fancy's Family Farm on Portland, this year's event was in support of the farm.

Dawn said: "It's something we do every year for Autism Awareness Week, we always choose a charity he uses so we can give back some money.

"He uses Fancy's Farm on Portland quite a lot because he can get quite close to the animals and feed them. They are always very accommodating to everyone, not just people with special needs, they are very friendly.

"It's somewhere he can go spend time outside and we knew they were asking for help anyway for people to donate money towards feeding the animals and looking after them.

"We probably go up there at least once a month. He likes it because he can go around on his own at his own pace. We were one of the last people to be there before it was shut down."

The farm was closed to the public from March 21 in line with government restrictions on social distancing.

Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus lockdown, Matthew and Dawn were not able to walk the route they had planned and instead did five separate walks over five nights from their home in Chickerell.

Dawn added: "Because of Matthew's condition, he struggles going places with lots of people and noise and needs to be outside walking and doing activities to keep his anxiety and mental health in a good stable place so places like Fancy's Farm really need to be supported to remain open especially for people with learning disabilities.

"We knew people were supporting us through our donations page so even though we knew we had to stick to the government restrictions we managed to complete the walk by doing about 1.7 miles every night for five days."

Su Illsley, who runs Fancy's Farm, said: "We are extremely grateful to Matthew and his mum to have completed his walk in such difficult circumstances. We will use the money towards animals feed as we are closed to the public due to the virus and at present we have very little income."