A battling mother has said she is determined to raise enough cash for vital treatment for her brain-damaged daughter.

Pearl Browne has a target of £20,000 for a specialist rehabilitation programme to enable her daughter Debbie to move again after a mystery insulin overdose left her virtually paralysed.

The 30-year-old former horse-riding instructor cannot talk and has had full-time care for almost four years.

So far the family has raised about £3,000 and bought a second-hand specially equipped Nissan Serena car to take Debbie out in her wheelchair.

"It's made such a difference to the quality of her life," said Pearl, 55, of Ridgeway, Wrose. "We've been all over, to Filey and Dalby forest, and it's just what she needs to help keep her spirits up."

Mother-of-two Debbie was found unconscious at her home in Wakefield Road, Bradford, in July 1999.

Doctors said it was likely she would remain in a vegetative state but parents, Pearl and Derek, are convinced progress can be made.

They want to pay for a rehabilitation programme at Schmieder clinic in Germany, a specialist neurological unit, which they heard about from a television programme.

And they were overjoyed when last Christmas she smiled for the first time since the overdose.

"Now she's smiling all the time, especially when she sees her sons, Jamie, seven, and Ethan, six," said Pearl, who is on a sponsored diet in aid of the appeal.

"We want to thank everyone who has supported us but we still have a long way to go."

Debbie is now being cared for at Lister House Nursing Home, in Heaton Road, Bradford.

A sponsored blindfolded haircut will take place at Redheadz hairdressers in Westgate, Shipley, on July 23 with a raffle to win £350 of vouchers for United Carpets Baildon drawn on the same day.

Raffle tickets can be purchased from the household goods stall in Shipley market, Kirkgate, by the sweet stall and the market inspector's office, or from Mrs Browne on (01274) 591978.

An appeal account, under the name Schmieder Clinic Fundraising Club at Lloyds TSB, Shipley, has also been set up.