Prolific fundraiser Karen Oxley was choked when a pensioner walked from Gorse Hill to Mrs Oxley's home in Stratton to donate £5 towards an appeal to buy her a new wheelchair.

Donations came flooding in to Mrs Oxley when the Evening Advertiser told how she needed a new wheelchair to get around.

Mrs Oxley, who was the first person in the UK to be diagnosed with a rare muscle-wasting disease, has raised thousands of pounds for medical research.

Her condition, mitochondria myopathy with carnitine deficiency, means she has spent years suffering from aches and pains and she is confined to a wheelchair.

But her old wheelchair was becoming uncomfortable and she desperately needed a new one.

After we told her story at the end of August, money came flooding in and within weeks she had almost enough to buy the £2,300 electric wheelchair she needed to make life more comfortable.

Thanks to all the generous donations, Mrs Oxley, who herself has raised around £30,000 to fund research for the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London, has been able to take delivery of a brand new electric wheelchair.

"It will make it so much easier for me to get around. That is the main thing," said 45-year-old Mrs Oxley.

"It's great to have the independence the new wheelchair gives me."

She was overwhelmed by the people who came forward to donate money to her appeal, including staff at Iceland who raised the largest single donation.

She would like to say a special thank you to the pensioner who walked from Gorse Hill to her home to make a donation.

"A man, who I only know as Mr Porter, turned up on the doorstep and gave me £5," she said.

"I know it doesn't sound a lot of money, but the fact that he gave me what he could afford and walked all that way was just wonderful."

Much of the money has come from husband Steve, 46, who along with family friends Paul Stammeare and Steve Rumming did the Great North Run to raise money.

"I would also like to say a big thank you to my children, who have given me so much support.

"I want to say thank you to all the many people who have helped," she added.