Mayor of London Boris Johnson has put his weight behind a campaign which will raise much needed funds for an Islington charity that helps disabled children and young people.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has put his weight behind a campaign which will raise much needed funds for an Islington charity that helps disabled children and young people.

KIDS provides more than 100 services across the UK to help disabled children and their families including short breaks, educational home visits and mediation services.

With the help of the Mayor, the charity is calling on young people to take part in the competition by submitting designs for a space hopper. The winning entries will be shown at an exhibition this summer in central London.

The exhibition will be followed by the Big Spacehop Challenge, a race that charity organisers hope will bring as many as 800 people in an attempt to break the world record for the largest space hop race. Anyone can register to fundraise for the big race and the event is open to adults and children.

Organisers hope the race will raise much needed funds for KIDS as well as promoting awareness of the everyday challenges people with disabilities face.

Mr Johnson, who helped launch the campaign last week, said: “I’m pleased to be supporting this exciting campaign on behalf of KIDS.

“They provide care and support to thousands of disabled children and young people and are a life line to families across the country including over 3,000 in our capital city. I’m urging everyone to get behind this campaign and get hopping for KIDS.”

Peter Rowbottom, director of fundraising at the charity, said: “We are running this event to support disabled children across the country and hope to raise thousands of pounds through this amazing event.”

Funds generated from the event will go towards providing support for mums like Judy, 33, who has two sons with disabilities.

After applying for one KIDS Direct Short Breaks, she felt “so confident in KIDS’ support” that she was able to leave her son and “not worry.”