Staff at a charity on the brink of closure were celebrating today after winning an 11th-hour reprieve.

Coordinators at Fashion Services for the Disabled in Baildon were faced with the prospect of shutting up shop after learning they had missed out on a grant from Bradford Council for the second year in a row.

The charity -- which tailors made-to-measure clothes for disabled people - has been in operation for 17 years and has helped hundreds of people in Bradford and across the country.

Its closure could have seen a return to the days when disabled people had no other option but to wear ill-fitting or unfashionable clothes.

But 24 hours after receiving the devastating blow that it had missed out on a grant, staff were overjoyed to receive a letter from the Northern Rock Foundation offering them a grant of £35,000 - enough to allow them to remain in operation for another year.

Treasurer of Friends of Fashion Services, Rosemary Francis, said: "We're absolutely thrilled.

"On Thursday we were thinking in terms of closing down. We'd limped along for the past year helped with funds from Bradford and Ilkley Community College. They couldn't support us indefinitely and without a grant from Bradford Council we were on the brink of closure.

"We'd put in an application to the Northern Rock Foundation and were absolutely jubilant to find out they'd awarded us £35,000, which will enable us to pay staff wages for another year."

Fashion Services is a national leader in its field and is currently taking part in a £292,000 National Lottery-funded scheme under the impetus of an organisation called awear.

Using state-of-the-art technology, the Clothing Solutions Project will allow patterns to be created digitally on a computer screen and cut at high speed.

Eventually, other clothing services around the country will be linked to the Baildon centre by video-conferencing, allowing for the production of tailored clothes at a reduced cost.

The Northern Rock Foundation is an organisation which gives grants to charitable bodies, primarily focusing on those who work with the disabled and their carers.

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