A charity which was on the brink of closure due to a funding crisis will find out early in the new year if a bid for Government cash has been successful.

The Pathway Workshop in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, which employs people with learning difficulties and disabilities to make furniture and kindling from waste wood, ran into difficulties in late October when it only had enough money to stay open for another four weeks.

It feared it would have to close, but following a wave of support, it managed to raise the monthly running costs of £3,000-4,000 to keep going.

The charity is now anxiously waiting to hear if its bid for a grant from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs will prove successful.

It has applied for a £98,000 grant, to be spread over three years, from the Environmental Action Fund -- a Defra scheme which helps voluntary groups further the Government's sustainable development aims.

Jenny O'Loughlin, office manager at the Pathway Workshop, said they were due to hear whether they had been awarded the grant in early January.

She said the money would help secure the future of the charity.

If the grant is given, the charity will not get any money until April.

At present, it has enough funds to keep going until the end of February and funds are needed to plug the gap in March.

But Mrs O'Loughlin said everyone involved in the charity continued to be amazed by the generosity people had shown.

"People are still sending in money, we have been so fortunate," she said.

"We are truly amazed by the amount of friends and general support from the public that we have had."

Meanwhile, morale among the 18 workers is good, and the workshop was busy in the run-up to Christmas meeting demands for furniture and kindling. Mrs O'Loughlin said: "We have never known it this busy."

She said the charity was optimistic about 2005, and was even looking into applying for major funding to enable the workshop to be extended.

To contact the Pathway Workshop, off Dunnock Way, call 01865 714111.