A pensioner has given thousands of pounds to a teenager after learning of her difficulties with new artificial legs.

Seventeen-year-old Laura Campbell had the state-of-the-art cosmetic limbs fitted after friends and family raised £20,000.

Among the donations was £11,500 from Skipton Properties and she received encouragement in a telephone call from Sir Paul McCartney's celebrity model wife Heather Mills who had a leg amputated after a road accident.

Laura's legs, complete with beauty spots, hair follicles, muscle definition, and even tendons and veins on the feet, were fitted at a private orthopaedic clinic in Dorset. But her family need to pay for more work to be done at the clinic as the socket fittings are causing the tops of her legs to be crushed.

The pensioner, who does not want to be named, has given Laura £3,000 after reading of her plight in the Telegraph & Argus's sister newspaper the Aire Valley Target.

Laura, of Crossflatts, Bingley, said she was in tears when he visited her to hand over the cash.

"I don't remember anything after he handed me the cheque - it's all a blank as I was going through all these emotions in my head," she said.

"I am absolutely overwhelmed and taken aback by his kindness.

"It's so important for me to be able to walk in these as they would not give me any more backache and improve circulation in my legs."

Once she is comfortable with her new legs, Laura, a former pupil at Bingley Grammar School, hopes to go to college.

She is as yet undecided on the course but has a keen interest in art and design.

And like any other teenager, she is looking forward to spending more time going out independently with her friends.