A YOUNG Ghanaian boy has reason to be grateful to a whole West Dorset community for giving him a chance in life.

A successful fundraising lunch in Whitchurch Canonicorum, near Bridport, means Leroy Boham can finish his engineering degree course.

The fact that he is even at university is down to his chance encounter with villagers John and Cynthia Bain in 2007 while they were on a cruise to South Africa. They had stopped off in Cape Coast in Ghana and while Mr Cain went sightseeing his wife sat down to sketch and attracted the attention of Leroy and his footballing friends.

She asked Leroy to let her know how he got on with his football and gave him her email address, not really expecting anything to come of it.

Hearing he had been ‘expelled’ from school for poverty prompted the Dorset couple to help him.

Mr Bain said: “We both believe passionately that education is the key to opportunity.

“Leroy is an orphan, his mother died of aids when he was seven and his father disappeared a year later. His grandmother is about 90 and couldn’t pay the fees for his secondary education.”

With the help of the Cains and their community, Leroy finished school and got a university place.