AN experience of a lifetime for a Poole teenager has made him want to help others enjoy the same fantastic opportunity.

Charley Way, who has brittle asthma – which causes recurrent severe attacks – was nominated for a Dreamflight and last October spent 10 days enjoying the theme parks and attractions of Florida.

Now the youngster aims to undertake a sponsored swim at the Everyone Active Dolphin Pool in February, to raise as much as he can to help other youngsters fulfil their wishes with a Dreamflight.

“It changed my life for the better,” said Charley, from Oakdale. “It made me think although I have asthma, I can still do things other people wouldn’t think I could do.”

The highlight of an action-packed trip was swimming with dolphins and he got into the water along with stingrays and other fish – and with sharks glimpsed in the next door tank. He said: “It was really good.”

His favourite trip was to Universal Studios and he made many friends among the 191 other youngsters on the flight, helping the less able and those in wheelchairs.

A meeting with Paralympian Liz Johnson, who has cerebral palsy and won gold in the Beijing Olympics in breaststroke and bronze at London 2012 in backstroke, inspired him to do a sponsored swim.

“I feel like I have to give something back. I want to give something back,” said Charley, who will be just 15 when he plunges into the pool on Saturday, February 9 at 6pm.

He aims to complete 192 lengths in three hours, one for each child on a Dreamflight and hopes to raise £1,920. The trip costs £3,500 for each child and no family has to pay a penny.

Kept stable on a cocktail of drugs, including four-weekly injections of Xolair at hospital, the Poole High pupil who plays football for a Corfe Mullen team and rugby at school, will be joined in the pool by Poole Hospital children’s ward nurses who went on the trip with him, his brother Connor, 18, who has the same condition and friends Ben, 13, Jessica, 15, and George Gordon, 17.

Proud mum Tracy said: “It should be fun.

“It’s a good cause and we want people to come down and cheer him on – they could even jump in and do a few lengths themselves.”

l Donations can be made on Charley’s Just Giving page justgiving.com/charleyway and if anyone wants to get involved contact Tracy on tracy.way@ntlworld.com