Ellen Daniels thinks she is very lucky.

There aren't many Good Samaritans about, but she reckons she got one of them. This particular good Samaritan came up with a £100,000 loan when no bank would give Mrs Daniels the time of day.

The loan was crucial. It meant Colchester Children's Day Care Centre had a home.

"We had already raised £100,000," explained Mrs Daniels. "It wasn't enough, though. We needed double that to buy and convert this particular bungalow we had seen.

"It looked as though we still had many more years fundraising to do. Then our good Samaritan stepped forward. It was marvellous."

Mrs Daniels doesn't give too much away about the person who helped make the day centre real.

"But we are paying back the money," she stressed. "£1,000 a month."

Colchester Children's Day Care Centre is a charity. It was founded by Mrs Daniels 17 years ago, but it is only now that the centre as a fully-operational building exists.

Next month it is officially "open for business", and while the good Samaritan may have played a big part, the driving force throughout has been Ellen Daniels.

This very determined grandmother didn't set out with the dream of opening a day care centre for children with special needs. In fact, she didn't start out with any dream at all.

"It was funny how it all got going," she declared. "I had a leaflet through my door asking if I had any unwanted clothes and bric-à-brac for the children's hospice in Cambridge.

"Some of my neighbours and I began collecting for the hospice. Then, about a year later, I was asked why did I put in all that effort for Cambridge and not for Colchester."

It was 1990. Mrs Daniels found out what she had to do from a solicitor, contacted the Charities Commission and, within weeks, had registered Colchester Children's Day Care Centre and opened the charity's bank account.

At this point, she had "absolutely no idea" what she was getting into. It never crossed her mind that she would have celebrated her 74th birthday before she celebrated the opening of the centre.

Yet if she had to do it all over again, she would - even though there have been times when her three children thought she was "quite mad".

"Yes, I have had a lot of support - family, friends, neighbours - but I have also had a lot of knocks," she said.

"The charity needed a lot of help, especially when it came to filling in the correct paperwork for medical staff, meeting all health and safety issues and understanding planning regulations.

"The number of times I asked for help from individuals and organisations - and the number of times they turned me down!"

But Mrs Daniels is nothing if not tenacious. She dug in her heels as many who worked in childcare services tried to persuade her the charity was going nowhere.

"I got the feeling they didn't want me helping children - that was their job, you know? But why shouldn't I help children, especially as Colchester doesn't have this kind of centre."

She has "no idea" why she opted for a children's special needs day centre. She remembers talking about raising money for children with those very neighbours who had helped her collect "charity bags" for the children's hospice in Cambridge.

"At some stage I thought we could go further and collect money for something which Colchester didn't have," she revealed.

"Somehow - I can't remember how - that became a short-stay respite centre, a place where parents could leave children of all ages if they had urgent appointments or meetings.

"You know the walk-in health centre at the bottom of North Hill in Colchester? That was what I wanted. Parents wouldn't need to book, just come along with their children."

It didn't exactly turn out like that. Even though the charity bought the bungalow in 2003, it took four more years and a great many more obstacles - mainly of the planning kind - before the centre was ready to open.

But "children of any age" fell by the wayside. The centre is licensed for a maximum of four three to five-year-olds receiving one-to-one care.

"Most of the money has been raised from what people don't want," she pointed out.

"We will take anything for re-sale - clothes, paper, books, cans. We sell some of the items in the charity's shops in Mersea Road - which is the charity's base - and Old Heath Road."

But it isn't over yet - in fact, when it comes to fundraising, it never will be as now come the substantial running costs.

"Oh, I thought it was going to be so easy - but people will tell me not to do it. So, of course, I do it."

And members of the charity she founded have recognised her for it. Quite rightly, the centre is called Daniels House.

  • For more information or to make donations contact Ellen Daniels on 01206 502610, or ring the charity shop on 01206 500106.