CHRISTMAS has been saved for a mother and her disabled daughter after a specialist car company stepped in to provide a replacement for the vehicle stolen from her driveway.

Avril Wright was devastated after the large people carrier she uses to transport her six-year-old daughter Chloe, who is blind and unable to walk, was stolen from outside her home.

The 32-year-old, who has two other daughters, Holly, eight, and three-year-old Evie, hired a temporary car to get Chloe to school until the end of term, but that had to be returned on Monday, leaving the family stranded at their home in Ninth Avenue, Heworth.

But after reading about the family’s plight in The Press, specialist car firm Adapted Vehicle Hire, which provides adapted cars and wheelchair-accessible vehicles across the UK, has stepped in to provide Avril with a car free of charge.

Avril, who works as a dinner lady at St Oswald’s Primary School in Fulford, said she was “delighted” by the offer.

“I am extremely pleased,” she said. “It means we can get out and about now and I can do my last bits of Christmas shopping, it will make such a difference.”

Avril said the vehicle will now enable her to drive to Hull so she and her daughters can spend Christmas with her sister.

The Volkswagen Transporter Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle will arrive today and will be on loan until the New Year. Lorraine Farnon, managing director for Adapted Vehicle Hire, said: “When I read this story I was compelled to try and find a solution.

“Working in the mobility industry and being a mother of young children myself, I know the important part a vehicle plays in providing freedom and this is even more the case at this time of year.

“I am pleased that we have been able to provide Avril and Chloe with a replacement vehicle and hope that the family can now enjoy Christmas to the full.”