AN Okehampton man has netted a big cheque for charity, thanks to his fishing skills and the generosity of friends, family and work colleagues.

Steve Dawe raised £729.08 after being sponsored 50p per pound for the biggest fish he could catch while on a recent trip to Spain — and he ended up catching a monster cat fish which tipped the scales at a massive 110lb!

Steve said: 'I think the people that sponsored me didn't realise how big these fish could get — although it could have been the other way and I might've only caught tiddlers!'

The huge cat fish swim freely in the rivers in Spain and in fact, Steve's sponsors may have got away quite lightly — the record is a massive 250lb!

'I never expected I would raise that much — I thought perhaps a couple of hundred,' said Steve, who has donated the money to the children's charity Reach, the association for children with a hand or arm deficiency.'

'The charity was absolutely delighted,' said Steve, who chose to raise the money for Reach after he and his wife, Lisa, realised the baby they were expecting had a deformed arm.

Little Samuel John Dawe was born on June 7 and immediately the couple realised their baby had more extensive problems.

Steve said: 'He has a very rare condition known as Moebius Syndrome. This condition causes arm deformities, cleft palate and facial paralysis.

'He can blink, but he can't move his eyes left or right, he has to turn his head, and he has problems sucking and moving his lips.'

Steve said Samuel spent the first three weeks of his life in the special care baby unit at Heavitree Hospital in Exeter — he will have to return to hospital when he is about six months old to have his cleft palate treated.

The couple are hoping research being carried out into Meobius Syndrome will ultimately help Samuel with the other difficulties he faces.

Meanwhile, he said a big thank you to everyone who had sponsored his charity fishing challenge — and those who have supported the family when Samuel was born.

'We were so grateful to Exeter neo-natal department, they were brilliant. He was really ill originally, but they were just fantastic,' said Steve.

l Pictured right, the Dawe family, including Samuel and his sister Phoebe, presented the cheque to Lyn Guy, co-ordinator of Reach in the South West at Tiverton Rugby Club recently.