A KARATE coach has stepped in to save an eight-year-old girl from having to give up the sport after her kit was stolen.

Distraught Grace Callaghan thought she was going to have to stop training after her expensive kit was stolen out of her mother’s BMW in the early hours of Monday morning.

The St Bedes Primary School pupil has been training at the Ippon Academy for two years, securing her brown belt.

However, after all her kit was stolen and her mother could not afford to replace it, she thought it was the end of her dreams.

Her mother Jessica said: “When she found out it had been stolen she was absolutely distraught.

“She was saying she was saying ‘I’m going to have to give up and I’m nearly at black belt.’”

Chief instructor at Ippon Academy Jason Netherton said what happened to Grace was “disgraceful.”

Damian Leonard, Grace’s coach, decided to gift the St Bedes pupil with a new kit, he said: “Grace has been training with us for a while and when she first started she was very little and a bit shy and retiring.

“But she has been brought out of her shell and has been more confident since so I would hate for her not to be able to train any more.

“With Christmas around the corner it’s an expensive time so we wanted to do what we could to help.

“We didn’t want the family worrying about that, they all do a lot to help us so the least we could do was help them out.”