PARENTS of disabled children in Brierfield are celebrating after a charity was saved from closure by last minute funding.

Caring Today, based in the town's community centre, supports 36 families from Nelson and Brierfield who have children aged between five and 13 with complex learning and physical disabilities.

The charity faced the prospect of closing this month until it was given £85,500 from the BBC Children in Need Appeal - enough to keep it afloat for three years. The Lancashire Children's Fund has also promised £30,000 support.

Caring Today is hoping to use the money to get Ofsted registered, allowing it to support more families and care for a wider age range. Currently children attend two-hour sessions with specialist staff.

The charity also provides advocacy support to help families tackle complicated social services and education systems, and established a carers group for people who look after children, partners or relatives so they can support each other.

Feeraz Begum, whose nine-year-old daughter, Sannah Fayyaz, is a regular at the centre, helped to set up the charity in 2001. She said: "This is a really important service. Caring for a child with complex disabilities is a 24-hour a day job and the service gives parents time off to do other things or spend time with other children.

"Many of the children are terminally ill because they have so many problems and there is no other respite for their parents. Having this support has made a real difference to my life. We are all very pleased to have the funding because I don't know what we would do without this."

Development co-ordinator Noel O'Brien added: "Without this money, we would have been closed now. We threw our hats in the air when we found out."