JENNY Woodward is a farmer's daughter and a teacher - and perfectly placed to help the children of East Lancashire's rural communities who suffered deep emotional trauma during the foot and mouth crisis.

She works with Northern Rural Partnership which has just secured funding to work with young people who are still suffering the repercussions of the biggest farming tragedy ever to hit the area.

From the organisation's base at Clitheroe Auction Mart, she will be working with local groups like the Lancashire Rural Stress Network, young farmers' clubs, and particularly with secondary and primary schools.

And she will be operating at the heart of communities where children are still enduring emotional pain.

At Bolton-by-Bowland CE Primary School headteacher Marilynne Ashmore told of the young pupil from a local farm who played a desperate game . . . "He filled a small dumper truck with toy farm animals and drove them to the hall where he just dumped them on the floor," she said.

"When his teacher asked him if he was going to put them back in the truck and take them home he said, 'No. The animals never come home'."

Another of her charges kept a pet sheep in a special pen at the side of the family farmhouse.

"When the slaughterers came the sheep had just lambed. The animals were all taken away and killed," she said. "When foot and mouth hit the village we lost something. It's still affecting the children, the parents and the school. Things aren't back to normal."

Jenny said: "It's a new project and I'm looking forward to the challenge of working with young people who have suffered the repercussions of foot and mouth, and organising activities to give them the skills and confidence to look to the future.

"Many children suffered stress and the psychological effects are still there."

At Bowland High School in Grindleton, near Clitheroe, headteacher Maurice Graham said: "Many of our pupils had to stay away from school, and one of our parents committed suicide. Who knows what the long-term effects on the children will be?"

Jenny - whose project is funded by Rural Mind, a branch of the national mental health charity Mind - can be contacted on 01200 444020.