A terminally-ill mother-of-four is to take the holiday of a lifetime after a regional daily raised thousands of pounds in just one weekend.

The News, Portsmouth, announced its Clare’s Disney Dream appeal on Saturday with the aim of raising £10,000 towards sending cancer patient Clare Baillie and her family to Disney World in the USA.

Clare, 37, has four types of cancer, and her friend Gina Tillett made The News aware of her dream to take her family on the dream holiday.

More than £3,400 had been donated by more than 100 people over the weekend, after the campaign was launched on Saturday’s front page, pictured below.

A couple of big pledges and donations have helped to push the total up to the £10,000 the Baillies originally estimated they would need for the trip.

Portsmouth-based charity Football for Cancer sent the family a cheque for £5,000, and film star and former footballer Vinnie Jones pledged to put another $5,000 (about £3,200) towards the holiday after becoming aware of Clare’s plight.

Clare said she hoped the trip to Disney World could be done soon after September, and that it would be “trip of a lifetime” for her children Ryan, 18, Lucy, 16, Albie, seven, and Evie-Mae, three, as well as husband Kane, 27.

In a video message for The News’s website, she said: “Thank you. That doesn’t seem like enough but there’s really nothing more I can say. It’s hard to put into words how it makes you feel.

“I wish people wouldn’t say things like ‘sorry I can’t give more’. The fact that they have given something is amazing.”

Howard Frost, head of content at The News, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response from people.

“It just goes to show that the people of Portsmouth, when one of their own is in need of help, come together.”