A girl told how a charity had transformed her life during a radio auction yesterday.

Sammy Taylor, 11, of Trimdon Grange, near Sedgefield, was promoting a TFM radio auction for the Make A Child Smile charity.

Items for sale included two full wedding receptions, a meal cooked at home by a chef and the chance to be director of Hartlepool Football Club for a day.

The auction had nearly raised its target price of £20,000 by last night but thousands more was still expected to pour in. Sheila Taylor, whose daughter, Sammy, has cerebral palsy, said that the Make A Child Smile charity bought her daughter an electric wheelchair, which gives her much more independence.

She said: "When she had a normal, push wheelchair she couldn't go out with her friends or anything but now she has so much more independence. She can do so much more on her own."

Sammy, who has a sister, Becky, nine, said she hoped the charity would be able to help other children.

Lots at the charity auction, held throughout the day on TFM and Magic FM, included two wedding ceremonies and three-course meal wedding receptions at The Wainstones Hotel, Great Broughton.

One went for £4,000 and the other was expected to raise even more than that.

The chance to be director for a day at Hartlepool FC raised £200 and signed shirts by David Beckham and the Middlesbrough Football Club team were expected to raise thousands of pounds.

The charity, which helps underprivileged and ill children, has Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson as chairman.