PUB regulars gave their loose change to an appeal instead of the barmen and helped give hope to a four-year-old girl.

The £372 collected at the Brownhill Arms, Blackburn, will help fund a trans-Atlantic trip to help Alexandria Cumberland, who lives on Pleckgate Road near the pub.

She is one of 12 suffers of Coffin-Siris Syndrome in the country -- there are only 81 people affected in the world.

There is little treatment available for Alexandria, who has severe learning difficulties, problems eating and cannot talk. She already wears a brace on her back and may need an operation on her spine in the near future.

A conference is taking place in America in the autumn where many suffers will get together with medical experts to talk about the disease.

There the family hope to meet Dr Grange Coffin, the man who gave his name to the syndrome in the 1970s after he identified it in three children.

Dr Bord Hurta, of California University, will also be at the conference. She is currently the only person in the world researching extensively into the disease.

Alexandria's mum Helen has spent 12 months fundraising and is now close to a £6,000 target to pay for the trip, which will include a visit to Disneyland. She said the conference had been intended for this spring, but that was cancelled because many American's refused to travel around their country in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The family run the website www.coffin-siris.org.uk to give advice to other families affected by the disorder. Helen hopes this will be enhanced by the trip to America.

She added: "If we can become better educated, then we can pass it on to other families.

"There is hardly any information about the disease at the moment.

"We didn't think we would raise the money so quickly. We are so grateful to the Brownhill Arms for helping."

A bottle was placed on the bar to collect customers' loose change. Landlady Alice Whalley decided to donate it to Alexandria's appeal because an employee is friends with the Cumberland family.