ROD Stewart has donated thousands of pounds to families of disabled children to cover the cost of joining a protest against cuts to medical funding.

The British singer and father-of-eight was moved by a report from US broadcaster CNN that the families had hired a bus to take them more than 1,000 miles from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Washington DC.

The effort to show their disdain at the Republican party’s proposals had set them back around 30,000 dollars (£23,000) but, at the time, they had raised only 7,000 dollars (£5,000).

It emerged on Thursday that Stewart, 72, decided to send them a cheque to cover their deficit after viewing the report.

According to the broadcaster, he wrote to his manager: “I’ve just seen something on CNN that’s heart-breaking. It was a group of families with severely disabled children who are driving to Washington to confront about health care cuts.

“See if you can find out who they are. I’d like to help in some way.”

Angela Lorio, co-organiser of the group Trach Mommas of Louisiana, praised the singer in a video diary.

“So I just deposited the biggest cheque of my life, and it couldn’t be from a more amazing person,” she said.

“Medicaid being cut, it’s not just numbers. And to have a person like Rod Stewart be so touched that he would do something like this to pay for the rest of our bus trip, it just blows my mind – it really, really blows my mind.”

PERILOUS reality television contest The Jump is retiring from the slopes for a year.

The Channel 4 programme, which sees celebrities take on a variety of winter sports and has lead to 34 stars being injured during its four-year run, will not air in 2018.

A spokeswoman for Channel 4 told the Press Association: “The Jump has been a hugely successful brand for Channel 4 over the last four years, however, with such a huge amount of winter sport on screen at the start of 2018 we have decided to rest the show for the year.”