After a year long battle to secure a new wheelchair - one is finally on the way for a little boy from Orpington.

Teddy Temple, four, is blind and has spina bifida.

He was once provided a wheelchair by Bromley services, but they could not afford to fund a replacement when he outgrew it, forcing Teddy to borrow one from his playgroup.

His mum Annie has fought to secure a new wheelchair enabling her boy to move himself in.

A charity for disabled children, Newlife, has now stepped in to provide Teddy the wheelchair, which is on the way.

Annie said: "I have been trying to get Teddy a new wheelchair from statutory services for over a year now – in one month I left 33 messages that went unreturned.

"I know that services are cut to the bone but there seems to be a real lack of awareness and sympathy. My son is blind and paralysed from the waist down; he has the middle part of his brain missing – how disabled does he have to be before he is noticed?"

Newlife is now striving to provide specialist equipment for 44 other disabled children in London who are in urgent need.

The charity say they are desperate to raise £64,033 for the 44 other disabled children.

Consultant nurse at Newlife, Karen Dobson, said: “One of the most heart-breaking parts of my job is when we have to say no to a child and family who are in desperate need of help because we simply don’t have the funds available.

“I know it’s hard to believe but the reality is that many of these children have already been refused essential equipment by their local health services. That is why they have turned to us, but unfortunately we haven’t got the funds to help them right now.”

Newlife’s Head of Charity Operations, Stephen Morgan, added: “Across the UK, disabled and terminally ill children suffer avoidable pain and worsening conditions when they can’t get the right equipment at the right time – no child should have to endure this.

"Every penny you donate to Newlife will genuinely be used to save and change young lives in your county.”

To make a donation for the 44 children in need of specialist equipment - you can do so here.