Last year, Dexter Gallop brought his love for Halloween to his home in Queens Road, Rayleigh, creating a scare walk-through for his local community to experience and raising vital funds for Little Havens.
Using birthday and christmas money throughout several year’s Dexter has grown his display collecting animatronics, props and decorations. After a visit to the hospice with his family, where Dexter met the team and saw the care and facilities they provide, he was more determined than ever to use his love of Halloween to help children and their families.
Dexter said, “It was brilliant to see so many people come along. I spend a lot of time collecting the animatronics and putting the display together, so seeing other people enjoy it made me really happy.
“I felt even prouder to have raised over £1,700 for Little Havens. I love Halloween and being able to use something I enjoy to help other people makes it even better!”
Little Havens in Thundersley provides expert, compassionate care to babies, children and young adults living with incurable conditions. It is a charity and relies on fundraisers like Dexter to make sure its care is there for all the families who need it.
This year, the walk-through is back and bigger than before, open to the public on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st October 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Dexter’s next-door neighbours have offered for Dexter to use their property too meaning there is a lot more space for even more scary thrills. Dexter’s fundraising target has grown too, as he hopes to raise £3,000 for Little Havens, Essex’s only children’s hospice.
Talking about the preparation for this year’s event, Dexter’s Dad, Mike, said, “It has been a much bigger job this year. Our neighbours have let us use their property as well, and we have got scaffolding across both houses to create a covered walk-through. This means there is more space for Dexter’s ideas, but also more building, decorating, lighting and sound to organise.”
The event has become a community effort, with family, friends and local businesses contributing their time, skills, equipment and donations.
TG Scaffolding has provided the scaffolding, Eternity Events Essex has helped with lighting and sound, and Essex Express has contributed towards the build costs. East Essex Hackspace repaired two broken animatronics, while Online Fabrics donated black cloth for the walkthrough walls.
Local businesses have also donated prizes for an in-person raffle during the event. A separate online raffle offers the chance to win two tickets to watch England v Croatia at Wembley Stadium, kindly donated by Go Privilege, with entries costing £5 each.
Mike added, “We are so excited to see the whole display up and running and everyone’s reactions as they come through. We are hoping to have a busy few nights and hopefully hit our goal of raising £3,000 for Little Havens.”
The display can be seen at 28 and 30 Queens Road, Rayleigh, from Friday 30th to Saturday 31st October 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Entry is free, with donations encouraged in aid of Little Havens. To find out more, donate to Little Havens or enter Dexter’s raffle, please visit https://dextershalloween.co.uk/.
Published on 28th October 2026
