The mother of a terminally-ill boy helped by a children's charity today said she was shocked to find out its founder has been jailed for trying to snatch a child.

Little Jay Theobald and his family went on a holiday of a lifetime to Spain in May so he could visit his maternal grandparents.

Jay, who lives at Rawlings Crescent, High Woods, suffers from degenerative infantile Battens disease, and is dying.

The Southend-based Dream Team stepped in to help make the much wished-for holiday a reality.

On Friday the charity's founder and former general manager Paul Dean was jailed for five years for the attempted abduction of a boy in east London in October.

Jay's mum Fran, said: "I never really had any dealings with Paul. He was the original one to speak to me. He was chatty, very nice. I couldn't knock him.

"I can't comment on Mr Dean because I do not know him. I'm gobsmacked. I hope it (the charity) doesn't fold, because without them my little boy would have had nothing. They helped him get a lot of toys as well.

"They laid everything on for us, nothing was too much."

The Old Bailey in London heard Dean, 30, of Southend, carefully planned to snatch the four-year-old boy from an estate in Plaistow.

It was only thanks to the screams of the boy's mother that the child was not taken by Dean.

He helped set up the Dream Team despite being placed on probation ten years before for sending obscene letters and making obscene calls to two young boys.

The Dream Team has become one of the most successful and high-profile charities since its inception in 1996.

In its first year it raised £250,000 and this year has a target of £1 million for the millennium, to send sick and disabled youngsters on dream trips and holidays.

The charity distanced itself from Dean's involvement, saying he had not worked for it for between a year and 18 months, even though he was described in court as its general manager

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