A YOUNGSTER who broke his leg in a car accident cannot stay at school because the only available wheelchair is too big to fit through the toilet doors.

When five-year-old Edward Sneddon broke his leg in a car accident, hospital staff searched in vain for a child's chair but the only one they could find was a huge adult-sized one.

His heavily plastered leg is propped up by a plank of wood because the supports on the oversized chair are too wide apart for him to use.

Mum Jacqueline, from Milner Street, Preston said: "The teachers at English Martyrs Primary have been brilliant, but it's not fair for them to lift Edward everywhere.

"It was bedlam getting him home. He was in plaster from hip to toe and weighed a ton. Even hospital staff were amazed there was no child's chair available."

Now Jacqueline is holding a fund-raising event to buy more chairs, but health bosses say this might not solve the problem.

Carol Ellison, a chief occupational therapist, said: "People don't return wheelchairs when they have finished with them. We have just started a retrieval system which involves ringing people after three months to remind them to bring back their chair."

The fund-raising event takes place this Sunday (July 6) from noon to 10.30pm at the Lovat Hotel, Lovat Road, Preston.

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