Echo readers have cleared the rent arrears of a family threatened with eviction while caring for a son left needing round-the-clock care after a vicious attack in Boscombe.

An incredible gift of £2,100 has capped a week of donations for screwdriver attack victim Nick Verron, 25, which will allow his family to pay off the £4,200 owed to their housing association.

Nick’s mum, Sue Vincent, who was made redundant after extended absence to care for her son, said the kindness of Echo readers had saved her family.

Sue said: “I feel utterly winded – in the best possible way! Please pass on my deepest thanks. Now the arrears are cleared, technically we shouldn’t even have to go court.

“This means we can keep the family together. We have been under so much stress – if we had been physically split up, I don’t think we could have survived as a family.”

Nick was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver in Roumelia Lane, Boscombe, last July, and has been forced by his injuries to move back to his mother’s home in Aylesbury.

A report in the Daily Echo that a possession order had been served against Nick’s devastated family sparked outrage – and offers of help – on the paper’s web site.

Donations began within days when a 43-year-old Boscombe man walked into the Daily Echo’s Richmond Hill HQ with a £500 cash donation.

Three cheques arrived two days later adding a further £1,050 to the total, followed by donations totalling £380 on the next day.

Last Friday after opening a post bag containing £235 of cheque donations, our reporter took a call from a local lady asking for the outstanding balance on the family’s rent arrears.

She refused to be named, but said she had been left money after the death of her partner and had wanted to help after following Nick and Sue’s story in the Daily Echo.

Housing trust boss Matthew Applegate said: “We are very pleased that in this case, it seems that we may be able to come to a resolution and continue to provide Mrs Vincent and her family with a home”.