A NORTH-EAST charity worker who adopted a disabled Kenyan boy is battling to bring him to the UK for urgent medical treatment.

Last month, Dee Knott-Mtile, 55, adopted 14-month-old Freddie, who was born with no arms or legs.

She fears he might have internal problems because he cannot digest food properly.

Doctors at St Mary's Hospital, in London, have agreed to treat him, but last week, the former North Tyneside General Hospital nurse was declined a visa to bring him into the country.

She said the reasons given for the visa rejection were lack of information and fears that she would not return Freddie to Kenya.

She said: "I gave them everything they asked for, so that was rubbish. It made me so angry they thought I would keep Freddie in the UK.

"My son is a Kenyan and I would never take him away from his country.

"I dread to think what will happen to him if I cannot bring him here for treatment."

Freddie has a curved spine and cannot sit up, but Ms Knott-Mtile hopes that if she is allowed to bring him to the UK, that can be corrected and that he can then be fitted with artificial limbs.

She felt compelled to help after she visited Kenya on holiday and was moved by the poverty she saw.

She met her husband, Sammy, who was working in a hotel at the time, and they married five years ago.

Originally from Backworth, North Tyneside, she moved to Kenya in 1995 and set up a children's refuge. Now she is known as Mama Dee to 20 children in her refuge, seven of whom live with her.

She has three grown-up children from her first marriage -Andrew, 32, Kirsty, 30, and Marie, 25 -and a five-year-old grandson, who all live in the North-East.

A Foreign Office spokes-man said the department did not comment on individual visa applications.