A 12-YEAR-OLD who went see a film about Stephen Hawking was told the cinema had no way to get his wheelchair into a screening - despite it being National Disabled Access Day.

Science lover Joe France was told the Odeon Cinema in Harrogate would not be showing Oscar nominated The Theory Of Everything in any of the screens he could get in to in his wheelchair.

His mum, Kelly Jones, said schoolboy Joe had been eagerly waiting to see the film about "the greatest disabled man on the planet", who he looks up to.

Joe, who suffers from cerebral palsy, has always used a wheelchair with no chance of walking in his lifetime, according to his mum.

Mum-of-five Kelly, of Harrogate, said she phoned up their local cinema last Saturday (January17) to make sure her son would be able to access the theatre - but was stunned when she was told that of the nine screenings over the weekend, none could be accessed by wheelchair.

She said: "Its a quite ironic as it was National Disabled Access Day, and we were going to see a film about the most famous disabled person in the world and they had no disabled access.

"Joe was just left confused by the whole thing, he couldn't understand why they couldn't show it for him in another screen.

"He said to me, the film was supposed to inspire people but how can can somebody in a wheelchair be inspired if they can't see it?

"I cried when he said that, it's just such a good way of looking at it.

"I have always told Joe you can get anything you want in life but you just have to do it a little bit differently to get the goal.

"Look at Stephen Hawking - he was told he only had a couple of years to live and look where he is now.

"He was so disappointed not to see the film."

The IT recruitment consultant said when she asked staff at her local Odeon if they could move one of the showings to a disabled access screen on Saturday, or even Sunday, she was told head office decide what films are shown in what screens and there was nothing to be done because it was policy.

Although Kelly, 36, couldn't fault the manner she was treated - she said the staff member she spoke to was very polite - she did think the Odeon could have done more to help her and her son.

The single mum added: "Joe has been waiting to see this film since it came out on New Years Day but I told him we should wait a couple of weeks to make we can get in.

"He is really into science, physics and into space he has got a telescope and wants to be astronomer.

"He wanted to see the film because of the science but and also because Stephen Hawkings wasn't always in a wheelchair, which really interests him."

Schoolboy Joe said: "I felt a but disappointed really, I was looking forward to seeing the film, Stephen Hawking is one one of my top three heroes.

"I am very interested in time, space, physics and black hole theory. I would like to study sciences at college and maybe be an astronomer, or a geography teacher or a science teacher.

"I thought it was going to be a very special day but I ended up doing nothing.

It would be good to see more lifts in buildings to give disabled people access."

Kelly said she believed there had been showings in disabled access screens earlier in the week but they weren't aware of it.

"But we couldn't have made it to see these screenings, I am a busy single mum and I have to be organised to got the cinema." Since the incident she said Odeon have been in contact with her and offered her free tickets to a showing this Friday, but Kelly said they won't be returning to the Odeon.

Kelly has four other children - Harry, 18, Daniel, 16, Madison, nine and Tegan aged seven.

Jason Stanton, Head of Guest Experience at Odeon, said: “Odeon Harrogate is inside a listed building, so we are unfortunately unable to change its layout to add wheelchair access to the two screens that currently don’t have it.

"We therefore try to rotate weekly the films we show in the three screens that do have access for people with disabilities, to ensure a full range of films is available.

"The Theory of Everything was shown in a screen with wheelchair access during the week of January 9 - 15 and we’ll be showing it again in a wheelchair-accessible screen for another week from this Friday January 23.

"On the weekend of the January 17-18, newer release films American Sniper, Into the Woods and Taken 3 were shown in the screens with access for people with disabilities, to ensure a variety of films are on offer.

"Unfortunately, this wasn’t communicated to the guest clearly and we apologise for the frustration this caused.

"We have invited them back to see The Theory of Everything as guests of the cinema, and they have assured us they are satisfied with how the matter was concluded.

"We have a proud history of working with the Cinema Exhibitor’s Association (CEA) to fundraise for charities that support people with disabilities such as Variety, the children’s charity - and to champion equality in cinemas for all.

"Odeon is also proud to be a part of the CEA Card scheme, a national concessionary card to allow people with disabilities to obtain free cinema tickets for people accompanying them.

"The vast majority of our screens are accessible to wheelchair users, and we have been at the forefront of introducing other initiatives for guests with disabilities including providing headsets for visually impaired guests, and hosting Audio Descriptive Screenings and Autism Friendly Screenings.”