A DISABLED youngster with a rare disease has been given a huge boost after receiving a new wheelchair from generous charity donors.

Stanley Newman, two, of Skelmersdale Road, Clacton, has the muscle-wasting disease congenital muscular dystrophy, which is gradually weakening him.

Last year, Stanley’s family raised £20,000 to buy him a special powered wheelchair.

But the brave youngster is not quite ready for the chair and struggled to adapt to using it.

Now dart league charity the Heart of Darts has stepped up to fund a lightweight manual wheelchair to help Stanley.

Dad Rob Newman said: “The powered chair is brilliant, but at the moment Stanley is only using it for long distances, while the new manual chair can help keep him mobile.

“He needs to use the muscles he has now to keep them for as long as possible. He has taken to it brilliantly.

“It is a stepping stone to the powered chair and it has really opened up a whole new world to him."

Rob thanked the Heart of Darts charity for helping them fund the new chair, which he picked up this week.

Mr Newman also took on a skydive at the weekend with fellow fundraiser Jon Turner to raise cash for Muscular Dystrophy UK, a charity that has done a lot of work to help Stanley and specialises in his condition.

They raised more than £1,000 in sponsorship for the charity by leaping from a plane at 13,000ft.

Rob added: “We’re pleased to do everything we can to help the charity which has done so much for us.”