'It's like another family' - charity helping bereaved military families opens new lodge in Devon

• Watch Claire Manning's report

A charity has opened a new holiday lodge in Devon to help provide a place of respite for bereaved military families.

Scotty's Little Soldiers supports children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the armed forces.

The new site is based at Devon Cliffs holiday park.

Lennon and Ruby cut the ribbon opening the new lodge. Their father Corporal Mark Palin was killed in Afghanistan in 2011.

Lennon said: "It's just like another family, so it's like you've got your family and then you've got your Scotty's family which a big part of Scotty's is like getting everyone together and having fun and enjoying spending time with different people."

Their mother Carla said: "It's amazing because we get to have some time away from life and school and work and just come away as a family and make great memories together and that's really important to me because they weren't able to make any memories with their dad so it is important for me to make memories for them, and just to come away and forget about everything."

Scotty’s founder, Nikki Scott, set up the charity in 2010 following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, in Afghanistan.

The idea occurred to her on a family holiday nine months after her husband’s death, when she saw her son, Kai playing in the pool and smiling for the first time since his dad had died.

Nikki's aim is to give other bereaved children the same opportunity to smile.

She said: "Any parent that experiences the death of a parent is horrific and heartbreaking but I've noticed from military families especially ourselves, you don't just experience the loss of a parent you also, you know we were living in a military garrison so we were surrounded by military.

"Kai went to a school where 99% of them were forces families, so then we had to leave our home, leave our friends, change schools, so you have got so many secondary losses  as well as come to terms with what's happened to Lee as well."

Scotty’s members can access services including child bereavement support, guidance to parents and carers, learning assistance and fun activities such as holiday respite breaks and group events.

This is the charity's seventh lodge, which has been funded by Forces Support.

So far this year, Scotty’s has helped more than 600 bereaved children and young people.

It has a long-term goal of supporting 1,000 bereaved military children and young people by 2030.