Jim has fixed it with a £1000 cheque

HE has famously fixed it for thousands over the years.

But Sir Jimmy Savile has gone the extra mile to help an Edinburgh charity after being touched by the plight of a city youngster.

Sir Jimmy, who fulfilled the ambitions of hundreds of children in his 1980s TV show Jim’ll Fix It, has donated 1000 to keep the charity for youngsters with learning difficulties in operation.

The former Top of the Pops presenter found out about the organisation’s plight following a chance meeting with a city mum on holiday.

Linda Lohman, 46, from Gyle Park Gardens, bumped into Sir Jimmy in Gibraltar and left an indelible impression after telling him about the work the Independent Special Education Advice (ISEA) Scotland charity had done for her 14-year-old son, who has learning difficulties.

The youngster is now in a special school in Derbyshire, but not before Mrs Lohman had to give up work to look after him and battle the local authority to give him a proper education.

ISEA helped the family every step of the way, but after its funding ran out nine months ago, the charity was forced to shut down and had to disconnect its helpline.

Sir Jimmy, 78, was so taken by the cause, he made a fleeting stop-off in the Capital on his way to his holiday home in Glencoe on Friday to hand over the money.

He enlisted the help of the Evening News to track Mrs Lohman down so he could present the cheque to her personally. He said: "I met this lady from Edinburgh while I was on holiday in Gibraltar who was with her disabled son. She told me all about how she is helped by this charity, which has made a tremendous difference to this lady.

"I’ve got some money to donate and I wanted to help raise the profile of this charity but I had not been able to get in touch with her. I told her to write to me and she did, but I’ve not had a chance to reply. I think she must have thought I had forgotten about her.

"So, when in doubt, always get in touch with the Edinburgh Evening News, they’ll get you out of any bother.

"It’s an exciting thing to jump off a train, hand over some money and jump back on again."

Sir Jimmy has had a long association with the paper and took part in the annual Evening News sponsored Walk for 11 years, raising 350,000 for worthy causes in the process.

"I’ll do anything for anybody if I can because I’ve no axe to grind," he said. "There’s almost a million registered charities in the UK and they’re all after me, but if somebody asks me to do something like this lady and I can give them a few quid and raise their profile, I’ll do it. It was really nice to see her."

Mrs Lohman said she was delighted at the donation and described Sir Jimmy as "a hero".

She said: "He really is a man of the heart. When I spoke to him I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was going to get back to me.

"Most men are not that approachable, but he was so open and friendly. He’s no idea how much this means to us."

ISEA has since received a promise of funding and is on its way back to helping thousands of Scottish families.

The charity was set up by parents, for parents, after receiving six years of funding in 1998 from the BBC Children in Need fund.

But when the funding stopped in March, charity chiefs were forced to close its Dalkeith offices.

Lorraine Dilworth, parliamentary liaison officer, said Sir Jimmy’s donation would help to reinstate the parents’ helpline.

She said: "It is absolutely fantastic that Sir Jimmy Savile has done this for our charity and that’s us on the road to getting the helpline back up and running. Every penny given to us is a big gesture."