The Dover community's heartwarming gesture in memory of Casey and Natalie Hood

The Dover community has come together to raise thousands of pounds for the victims of the fatal A2 crash.

Casey Hood and Lucy Leadbeater were tragically killed on Friday (September 14) after the Toyota Yaris they were travelling in crashed in Nethersole Road, Denne Hill in Womenswold near Canterbury.

Casey, 18, was a passenger in the car and sadly died at the scene while the driver and mum-of-one Lucy Leadbeater was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but died in hospital on Saturday (September 15).

Two days later tragedy struck again when Casey’s mum Natalie Hood was found dead at her home in Dover. Money raised will also go towards her funeral costs.

But in the face of multiple tragedies, the people of Dover have proved they have one of the best community spirits in the county.

There are two separate fundraising collections: one online via a JustGiving page and one in the Cricketers pub which was one of Casey Hood’s favourites - and where she was just hours before the tragic crash.

There is also a mass raffle with dozens of prizes which have been donated by the local community and businesses, as well as a separate raffle to win a banger race experience.

Mass raffle

Chelsea Maguire,23, approached Wayne Morley,39, and Kerry Moore,38, because she wanted to raise money for Casey and Natalie Hood by doing a raffle.

Wayne and Kerry have previously raised money within the community for good causes, Sasha King,20, saw a post on Facebook about the raffle and has been helping to sell tickets and collect donations.

The huge raffle has seen the community donate 100 prizes.

Chelsea says she has been blown away by how much people have been willing to donate without even being asked.

Prizes come in all shapes and sizes from a £200 photo shoot and builders offering free work, to two full-day tattoo sessions and a two-hour kids' disco.

The raffle is hoping to raise around £5,000 if they can sell all the tickets, and they are already planning to buy more because of how popular it is proving.

Another one of Casey’s close friends Chelsea, who is the main organiser of the raffle added: "Ziggy’s florist has donated flowers for the tops of the coffins to Casey and Natalie, but they have also done that for Lucy Leadbeater’s family.

"We will be taking some money out to buy Lucy’s little boy Logan a small gesture as he has been affected by losing his mum.

"I've had people stop me not even wanting tickets, they just want to make a donation.

"We're looking at about £5,000 if we sell these tickets with the five books we've got and we are already trying to look for different colours to buy more."

Wayne said: "The amount of local businesses that have got involved and donated, we've had 100 donations and a lot of them are high value donations as well.

"The interest in the local community is going to be pretty big and everyone wants a ticket."

Banger race experience

Ben Lawrence, from Eastry, is hoping to raise nearly £600 for Casey and Natalie Hood from the sale of raffle tickets to win a driving experience in his car at Coombe Valley banger track.

The winner will get the chance to drive his car on an arrive and drive experience at the track.

The 27-year-old told Kent Live: “I am doing a raffle for a arrive and drive experience to race my car down Coombe Valley banger track in Dover.

“I will raise £590 from this with all the tickets sold then I will give the money to Kellis Hood to go towards anything the family needs.

“I decided to do it because I felt it was the right thing to do - as have the rest of the community to help support the family after such a tragedy.

“All the tickets for this event have been sold now, so we are on target to have the event going ahead on the date as planned.”

The winner will be picked against this Saturday’s lotto bonus ball and they will race around the track at 1pm on September 30.

JustGiving page

A JustGiving page has been set up by Annabelle Stokes to raise money for Casey and Natalie Hood, smashing its original £3,000 target and has now reached almost £5,000 in just four days.

The page has seen 269 people donate so far and was on £4,325 as of yesterday afternoon (September 20).

Annabelle Stokes, 18, from Dover said: “I have opened a crowd funding page on JustGiving to raise money so we can give our girls the best send off.

‘I miss my friend endlessly’

“I was hoping to raise £3,000 but it’s gone way over that and we are now heading towards £5,000. The money will be towards funeral costs and whatever else the family would like to do with it.

“It’s been going amazingly - I just want everyone to keep sharing and donating, every donation is appreciated. I miss my friend endlessly and she deserves everything I can get.”

Cricketers Collection

The Cricketers pub is holding a separate collection and hopes to raise around £500, staff have also donated a £100 bar tab to the mass raffle.

Manager Jennifer Bailey also said they hope to get a memorial bench put in the garden of the pub.

The 24-year-old said: “We’re selling raffle tickets and we also have a pot behind the bar. If anyone has any spare change they put that in the pot.

‘Casey was a regular customer here’

“Casey was a regular customer here, she actually came in here on the night but she went off to another nightclub.

“I’m hoping we can get to £500, that is our end goal. We have Prosecco and we are giving away bottles if people put so much in.”