A DEVOTED dad, whose one-year-old daughter Kaesha was born with Down’s syndrome, is setting up a special needs martial arts group to help other similar children in the Andover area.

Darren Molloy, who lives in Winchester Gardens with fiancée Emma, has organised a noncontact martial arts session later this month to bring together families with Down’s syndrome children to provide them with a safe and fun exercise environment.

The 34-year-old martial arts instructor was prompted to start the sessions after moving from Farnborough in November last year.

Mr Molloy said he was “shocked” at the lack of support in Andover for families whose children have the genetic disorder and hopes his sessions will fill that gap.

He said: “When we moved to Andover we were shocked at how little support there is here.

“To come from somewhere like Farnborough where you have so much more help has been difficult.

“I felt that there needs to be more services to help children with special needs so I decided to set up this monthly martial arts seminar.

“It is the kind of thing where siblings can join in as well and that is great for the parents because it is a real family thing then.”

Mr Molloy and fiancée Emma, who have nine other children between them, have regularly used exercises to help their own daughter to build up her muscle strength, which is often weak in children who have the condition.

Mr Molloy’s idea to host the non-contact martial arts sessions has already received a flurry of interest as well as offers of support from various groups.

Andover-based special school Icknield has offered to host the first sessions and Mr Molloy has even had calls from groups in Basingstoke asking if he would set up a group there.

He said: “People have been so positive about the sessions so obviously there is a need for it.

“Hopefully if the first session goes well we can make it a monthly group.”

The first session took place at Icknield School, River Way, last Saturday but Mr Molloy is hoping to make the event a monthly fixture.