A £10,000 appeal has been launched in Manchester to enable a terminally ill 13-year-old to visit Israel.

Ryan Grossman has nemaline rod myopathy, a rare, debilitating muscular disease which causes early death. The Whitefield youngster is the only wheelchair-bound pupil at Manchester King David High and wants to join his classmates on the school’s Israel trip in May.

“The cheap airlines won’t take him; we have to pay for oxygen on the plane,” explained Ryan’s mother, Michele. “We are hoping to bring two volunteers with us to help with Ryan’s needs.

“The bigger he is, the harder the trip is. I want to go while we can cope. Everybody deserves the right to visit Israel and Ryan has never been.”

Camp Simcha volunteers and Ryan’s sister Chelsea have set up a JustGiving page, “Get Ryan to Israel”, to help raise the funds. Camp Simcha’s Neville Goldschneider said Ryan “is a young man who truly deserves this most important opportunity to visit the Holy Land”.