A TERMINALLY ill man is leading the fight to save the cash-strapped Shopmobility service.

John Ault, 58, has joined the Pioneer's campaign to stop the widelyused service going under. It urgently needs £28,000 to survive.

Shopmobility hires out scooters and walking aids to hundreds of disabled people from its bases in the Port Arcades and Cheshire Oaks.

The service not only gives greater freedom to people but helped bring in £400,000 of extra trade to the two centres last year.

Staff say its loss to the town would be 'immeasurable and devastating'. But, so far, the borough council has refused to provide financial help.

Mr Ault, who lives with his wife Edna in Bruera Road, Great Sutton, uses Shopmobility to get around the Port town centre twice a week.

He has Hodgkin's Disease, lung cancer, chronic arthritis and heart problems.

Mrs Ault said: 'Shopmobility gives John the freedom to get out and about the town.

'He pays them £15 a year which allows him to use their scooters whenever he needs them.

'John has a wheelchair but it's hard to get around with that.

'Without Shopmobility, life would be very difficult indeed. He'd be stuck in the house.'

Mrs Ault is angry that Shopmobility could keep going with just £28,000.

She said: 'This has got us both very incensed. There is money being spent on those plinths with Ellesmere Port on them in Station Road and Whitby Road.

'Surely funds could be found from somewhere for Shopmobility. It benefits so many people and yet it could close.'

Mr Ault has respite care at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, and his wife has taken a petition to save Shopmobility there, collecting 200 signatures. Another petition is at the DICE offices in the Port Arcades, where Shopmobility is based. nDo you use Shopmobility? Tell us your views. Write to: The Pioneer, 66 Whitby Road, Ellesmere Port CH65 0AA or call 0151 356 2345.