SERIOUSLY ill children will get a dream trip, thanks to kind-hearted Weymouth residents.

A family fun day at The Marsh yesterday raised thousands of pounds for Dreamflights.

It was organised by fundraiser Lorraine Brown, after the charity took her disabled son, Jack, 10, on a trip that she described as ‘completely life-changing’.

Dreamflights is a national charity that takes 192 children aged between eight and 14, plus a team of volunteers and medical carers, on an annual trip to Florida for 10 days.

Mrs Brown first got involved in 2012 after her wheelchair-bound son, who suffers from the rare neurodegenerative disease Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, went on one of the trips.

Yesterday, families were treated to live music and a special performance from the Odyssey Majorettes, plus an inflatable obstacle course, face painting, tombolas, cake sales and a bar and a barbecue at a fundraising event for the charity.

Mrs Brown, South Dorset group leader for Dreamflights, said the day was a great success.

“My son went on a trip organised by Dreamflights and it was completely life changing. He has selective mutism and never really talked but when he came back he started talking,” she said.

“It gave him a world of confidence. It was the best thing he has ever done and that’s why I wanted to get involved and raise |money for the charity, because I wanted to give something back to them.

“The fundraising event was a really amazing day, it all went really well.”

It costs the charity £3,500 per child for a Dreamflights trip, and once they’ve landed, the charity takes the disabled children to Disneyland Florida and Universal Studios.

Mrs Brown said she wants to raise £7,000 so the charity could take another two children.

She added: “It really is an amazing charity.”