An eight-year-old suffering from a genetic disorder so rare she was the first girl in the world to be diagnosed with it has been given a new lease of life.

Lilly-Ann Robertson, who goes to Meadowfields Special School in Sittingbourne, now gets around in a £6,000 TinyTRAX power chair.

Her mother Roxanne launched an appeal to raise money to buy it in October and had collected half the amount after four months.

Then businessman Wayne Hodgson, of Red Eagle Jobs, who chairs the Kent charity Donations With A Difference, stepped in and stumped up the difference.

He said: “We were all so taken by Roxanne’s appeal we decided to donate the remaining £3,085 needed to order the TinyTRAX chair.”

“When she tried the chair for the first time the smile on her face said everything. The freedom to move around by herself is fantastic"

The custom-designed chair took three months to build.

Lilly-Ann, who lives in Sheerness, had her first outing to the park on it last month with her mum and younger brothers, William and Tommy.

Roxanne, 26, said: “She is delighted she is mobile for the first time in her life and can now start to join in the fun.

“She is unable to walk, talk or do the things a girl of her age should be able to do.

“When she tried the chair for the first time the smile on her face said everything.

“The freedom to move around by herself is fantastic.

“This will help her develop her independence.”

The defect in the MED12 gene had, before Lilly-Ann’s unique case, only affected boys because of the chromosomal differences between the sexes.

“She was born with extra fingers and curled feet.

For details about Donations With A Difference, visit www.dwad.org