A CARING businessman has waved his magic wand - to send dozens of deserving children to Cinderella's ball.

Danny Smith spent hundreds of pounds so he can treat them to an evening at the theatre.

He heard that the Cinderella pantomime being staged at The Point Theatre in Eastleigh had not sold all its tickets for the mid-week performances.

Danny, a director at Choice Motor Company, in Totton, only heard of the seat availability on Friday and the show was on the road by Tuesday.

He contacted Oakhill House, in Romsey Road, Shirley, part of Southampton's social services team, to offer them tickets for the children and some for staff.

The 26-year-old also paid for coaches to take youngsters to and from the venue, refreshments during the interval and bags of sweets for the journey.

Altogether Danny splashed out around £425 for the extravaganza for two productions last night and on Wednesday night.

Danny, from North Baddesley, said: "My father always used to be involved in charity things when he was president of Romsey Lions. It all stems from that.

"I thought it would nice to do something like this for the kids.

"It has all been a bit of a rush. I was told about it on Friday, I thought about it on Saturday and it had all been arranged by Tuesday.

"The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves I got them cheering.

"My company already sponsors kids in Rwanda and Bolivia and my employees contribute.

"But I thought I'd do this to put something back into the community and do something local. "

Mair Thomas, service manager at Oakhill Hous, said: "This was an extremely generous offer and we were very grateful for tickets. The children had a wonderful time."

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