POORLY children can cuddle a lovingly-restored rocking horse thanks to a couple who owed it's owners their daughter's life.

Amy and James Proctor, whose nine-year-old daughter gets treatment at the horse's home at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, nursed the neglected antique back to its bygone glory.

Mrs Proctor, 35, said: "I owe my daughter's life to that hospital. To have spent so much time there you start to notice the little things that make a difference, and the rocking horse was one of them."

Their daughter Elana, who has a complex birth defect called Charge syndrome, became passionate about horse riding after playing on the rocking horse when she was little.

Mrs Proctor added: "When she was born I would sit with her and rock, it was a bit of escapism from having a poorly little girl where you don’t get to do a lot of fun things. I always see other children queue and take it in turns to go on it.

"To think how many children have been on it, the places it's been – with each kid their imagination takes it somewhere else."

The young Northamptonshire couple paid for the restoration after noticing the horse needed some TLC.

The worn-out horse had been stroked to a state of disrepair, with chipped paint and patchy hair.

It can now stand proudly inside the Headington hospital, complete with a cascading golden mane and pristine bridle.