Swansway Group has donated an automatic Volkswagen Polo to Olivia Cork after Government cuts meant her Motability car would be taken away from her.

The family owned dealer group stepped in after Cork's story was brought to the attention of Swansway's directors by Jane Hargreaves, brand manager at Wrexham Volkswagen.

Cork, 19, lost her leg to bone cancer at the age of 14, and is hoping to become a Paralympian through her swimming prowess.

Government cuts meant Cork would lose her adapted Motability car, because, despite having her leg amputated, she was, as she put it, ‘not disabled enough’.

She needed £5,500 to buy her adapted car from Motability and she set up a crowdfunding page to raise the funds before the car was taken away.

Peter Smyth, Swansway director, said: “It turns out Oliva lives just around the corner from our head office in Crewe and it didn’t take long for my dad, brothers and I to decide that we should solve Olivia’s problem.

“Olivia needs a car and as a local business with 19 car dealerships, it made sense to us, to give her a car of her own, to keep, so this can never happen to her again. We’re adapting a new, blue metallic, automatic Volkswagen Polo, which we’ve promised to have ready before she has to hand back her current car on December 3." 

Smyth said Cork is an "extraordinary young woman, she’s raised tens of thousands of pounds for cancer charities, works at three jobs, swims every day and still finds time to attend the sixth form at Alsager School, if any young lady deserves an early Christmas present it’s Olivia”. 

Cork said: "It was all a bit overwhelming when I got the phone call to say Swansway wanted to give me a car, I thought someone was having a joke a first, but when I realised it was genuine and I could even choose the colour, I was just blown away."

Cork did actually raise enough through crowdfunding to pay for the new Polo, so Swansway is now donating £5,500 to Teenage Cancer Trust.