When armed robbers shattered a young boy’s dreams of swimming with dolphins, readers of the Birmingham Evening Mail gave new hope along with their donations.

Four-year-old Christian Hughes suffers from severe cerebral palsy and the Florida treatment, to stimulate and develop confidence, might be his only chance to learn to speak and walk.

His family had raised thousands of pounds for the appeal before armed robbers made off with their car – full of charity collection equipment – after holding Christian’s disabled father at gunpoint.

Readers made anonymous donations after reading a story in the Evening Mail and the West Bromwich Building Society offered to replace 800 dolphin badges the family was using for fundraising.

Christian’s mum Melanie said: “The response we received from people kick-started us into action again. It’s good to know there are some nice people out there as well as the horrible ones who could do this to us.

“We want to say a big thank you to all the readers who helped us raise the £11,000 from the start and continued to help us after the robbery.”

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