A special royal fund set up to help charities and projects in the Royal Borough through the Coronavirus pandemic has now closed - having issued a total of £96,795 in grant funds.

It drew on its assets of the long established Prince Philip Trust Fund to establish a special Covid-19 Relief Fund, concentrating solely on helping people and organisations dealing with the problems caused by the pandemic.

In May this year £57,500 was given out to 28 successful applications for relating to Covid-19. In the second extraordinary virtual meeting of the Board of Trustees held in July and chaired by the Earl of Wessex £39,275 was allocated to 20 separate charitable organisations and projects for their work to support residents during the pandemic.

These included Windsor's Thames Hospice with funds to buy two oxygen concentrators; Chatterbots, who now are able to provide their speech and language therapy for children with Down Syndrome online; and the Autism Group based in Maidenhead, supported to buy new technology in order to help young local people with autism.

The Thames Valley Adventure Playground in Taplow who provide specialist indoor and outdoor recreational and learning opportunities for children, teenagers and adults with special needs, has also received a grant which will help meet the costs of re-opening their facilities in line with Covid-secure guidelines.

Now it has been decided the Covid-19 Relief Fund's work is done.

Prince Philip Trust Fund is now back accepting applications from charities and good causes that meet its usual broad criteria.

Ross Wilson, treasurer and trustee of the charity said: “The last five months has been a challenging and worrying time for most, but for some local residents and their families it has been extremely difficult whether dealing with food insecurity, to lack of access to services, to facing loss of earnings, to isolation and loneliness.

“The way in which our community has rallied around to help - whether it is from reorienting their services online or rising to the increased demand for their services, or getting essential supplies to those in need - has been truly inspirational."