A house-bound pensioner gets the keys to a new mobility scooter this Christmas – after neighbours clubbed together on a fundraising website.

Arthritic Shirley Briggs can barely walk and rarely makes it out of her Whitstable home to the local shops.

But kind-hearted Gareth Cotterell, who lives a few doors down, decided she could do with her own set of wheels.

Having set up a fundraising page after hearing that the 75-year-old was short of money, he built up a £600 cashpot in just two days.

Ms Briggs, 75, is now set to take delivery of a brand new scooter on December 23 – despite having never driven in her life.

“I’ll be taking it slowly at first until I get used to how it drives,” she told the KentOnline. “I’m overwhelmed really – it was so unexpected. I’m so grateful to Gareth.”

Ms Briggs, a spinster living in Regent Street, got to know Mr Cotterell, 30, on her infrequent trips to the local shops.

“I try and get the shopping once a week and he often helps me with the bags,” she said. “But lately the arthritis has been getting worse and I don’t really get out.”

Mr Cotterell, a father-of-four who runs his own building maintenance firm, has praised the generosity of Tankerton-based First Choice Mobility.

“We approached them and they heard about Shirley’s circumstances. They’ve offered a really decent discount,” he said.

“I’d seen how walking was getting harder and harder for Shirley recently. I’d say it would take her a good fifteen minutes just to walk a hundred yards.

“On one occasion I was helping her with the shopping to and from the shops and it took an hour-and-a-half.”

He decided to set up a webpage to raise funds from kind-hearted locals.

"It took just a few minutes to set up," he said. "The response was amazing. We had the money raised in two days."

Shirley took her new scooter for a test drive this morning.

“It’s quite exciting,” she said. “I had a bike when I was a schoolgirl but never drove a car. It will make getting out and about a lot easier.

“It’s perfect timing – December 23, Christmas. It’s also my mum’s birthday. She would have been 102.”