A YOUNG cerebral palsy sufferer will soon be swimming with dolphins an effort to help him find his voice.For the past three years Carol Crane has been trying to raise the £19,000 needed to send her five-year-old son, Jordon, to America for the intensive therapy.

A YOUNG cerebral palsy sufferer will soon be swimming with dolphins an effort to help him find his voice.

For the past three years Carol Crane has been trying to raise the £19,000 needed to send her five-year-old son, Jordon, to America for the intensive therapy. The target has now been reached and the pair will fly out to Florida, USA, on July 29.

Ms Crane, from Saxmundham, said: "I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us over the last few years. We've had so much support from people, it's been brilliant."

Jordon will spend almost a month at the Dolphin Therapy Unit in Key Largo, Florida, where he will undergo intensive therapy sessions and be rewarded with the chance to swim with dolphins,

Born with cerebral palsy and severe learning difficulties, doctors thought Jordon would never be able to sit up or walk, but he has astounded them with his progress.

Mrs Crane, of Mayflower Avenue, said: "He's learning how to get up and down the stairs now and he's doing so well. The only thing he can't do is talk and we are hoping the treatment in Florida will help with this.

"He is such an opinionated little boy but just can't put those feelings in to words at the moment. I'm hopeful we might achieve this in Florida."

The good news is, however, tinged with disappointment as Ms Crane is currently locked in a battle with her housing association, which has refused to put a fence up at the front of her house.

Ms Crane has requested the fence to help keep Jordon safe and prevent him from running out on to the busy road that runs by their house.

She said: "Jordon is at real danger because he can open my front door and get out. I put in the request months ago and they agreed to do the work. I have even had to sign a tax relief form so that they would not have to pay tax for it.

"What really annoys me is that, at the same time the request for the fence was put in, our occupational therapist recommended non-slip flooring in the bathroom.

"I'd been managing perfectly okay in the bathroom and feel the fence is much more urgent, but the housing association fitted the flooring within two weeks."

Ms Crane has letters from Flagship Housing, dating back to June last year, stating it would provide the fence, along with the non-slip flooring.

Now she has received a letter saying the Housing Corporation had stopped funding such adaptations to property and that she would have to apply for a grant herself.

Jonathan Sullivan, group director for property at Flagship Housing, said: "The association are unable to fund the work for Ms Crane's fence because the grants we receive from central government for such work have been cut substantially this year.

"We are now having to look again at the whole situation because, clearly, there are a lot of people on our waiting lists who are disappointed by that.

"We do have a small amount of money set aside for smaller jobs, but bigger things have always been funded by the central government grants and we are having to disappoint people nearer the bottom of our lists."