Ledbury businessman Len Huff is helping to give disabled youngsters a new sense of freedom and achievement in a Malvern Link hydrotherapy pool.

Mr Huff, owner of Toybox in the Homend Mews, said he began to understand the benefits of hydrotherapy when he broke his pelvis in a car crash in 1990 and afterwards underwent a hip replacement.

He said: "At all stages of my recovery hydrotherapy played a mayor part."

Now Mr Huff is sponsoring two hydrotherapy sessions a week at Osborne Court, Malvern Link, at £20 a time, to help severely disabled youngsters in both the Malvern and the Ledbury areas.

He said: "I wanted to link my shop with a worthwhile children's charity, that's where I'm coming from.

"I became convinced of the enormous physical benefits offered by the pool. It's absolutely amazing to see kids who normally find movment difficult kicking their legs in the water.

"Mother Nature invented something wonderful when she made water. Other than drinking it, it has some incredible properties."

Mr Huff, chairman of the Ledbury Independent Traders' Association, heard about the Osborne Court Pool after receiving a National Childbirth Trust newsletter. After learning more about it, he decided to help.

He said: "Three of my own children are well and truly grown up now, and I have four grandchildren in perfect health; but you don't have to look very far to see that not everyone is so well off."

Victoria Leathwood, Osborne Court's hydrotherapy pool co-ordinator said: "Because the pool is warm it helps to relax muscles and aids mobility and it's a pool specially designed for people with multiple disabilities. There's a hoist for children who cannot go down the steps.

"For many of the children, it's the first place where they can go without people staring at them. What we all take for granted, they don't. Mr Huff's sponsorship is obviously the most wonderful news. He has actually been to two sessions. It's a lot of money but very well spent."

For more more information about children's sessions in the hydrotherapy pool, contact Mrs Leathwood on 01684 612727.