A CHARITY for physically disabled people has come back from the brink of closure.

Open Doors, which is run by Bridget Clelland from her home in Barton, near Darlington, faced closure in December, when it was struggling to make payments on a minibus it uses to take clients on outings.

Linda Curran, whose 29-year-old son Paul uses Open Doors, wrote to the national charity Candis Club for help and Open Doors received a donation of £2,500.

Candis Club committee member, Rex May, said: "We were so taken by the good work they were doing that we decided we would like to support them through a donation."

Mrs Clelland said: "It is a very valuable contribution and we are very grateful for it."

She started Open Doors eight years ago after spotting a need for a service that offered severely disabled people better quality of life.

"Ope n Doors is about people and their right to choose a more fulfilling lifestyle for themselves," she said. "We have taken them up in gliders and microlites and they have been abseiling, canoeing and sailing; they've got the guts and we've got the people.

She added: "Some of the group have said that they regard themselves as my second family, and that is how I see them."