A man traumatised by the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York is among well-wishers who have rescued a Bradford charity’s project at the 11th hour.

Earlier this week the Telegraph & Argus reported how The Joshua Project had only days to raise a further £57,820 so it could turn one of Bradford’s oldest former cinemas into a new learning centre for difficult teenagers.

As time was running out on plans to transform The Plaza in Cross Lane, Great Horton, into The Impact Centre, T&A readers and people around the UK and the world dug deep in their pockets to offer help and make pledges.

One Bradford youngster gave up her birthday money, a British couple working in Nigeria sent £500 and an office worker in New York who survived the 2001 attacks also made a pledge after they saw the story on the T&A’s website.

People’s generosity meant the project reached its total five hours before a trustees meeting to decide the Impact Centre’s fate and finally, after six months of consultations with architects and planners, the charity could now sign the lease on the dotted line.

The money it now has will pay for the first two years’ rent, the first year’s bills and all the building work.

In the next couple of weeks, work will start to turn the interior of the building into a high street with shopfronts leading to learning spaces behind. The ‘street’ would follow the cinema’s main aisle slope down to the stage, which would be kept as an auditorium.

The project’s founder, Rich Jones, said: “We have been moved and strengthened by people’s generosity and their belief in the work we are doing and want to build on with young people.

“The majority of money and pledges has come from outside of Bradford. People have read the T&A story from far and wide on the internet and have wanted to show their support.”

Schools will be able to hire space in the Impact Centre to work with disruptive and disturbed young people before they get into a situation where they are expelled. It will allow time and space for experts to work with the teenagers and get them to see the possibilities a good education can bring them.

The charity, which began in Bradford in 2007, has already been working with an average of 200 young people a week who have been coming to after-school activities at St John’s. It has out-grown the base because of demand.

Fundraising is continuing. Anyone who wants to make a donation or pledge support should go to joshua project.co.uk or call 0845 8052194.