The 8,500-euro payment from a kind benefactor means they will be able to hand over the keys to their property in Vigo (Galicia) in exchange for wiping out the mortgage debt entirely, and will be allowed to carry on living in their house for a very low rent.

The owners took out a mortgage in 2004, but by around April 2010 they found it impossible to pay the mortgage, and put their home up for sale.

But the house did not sell, leaving them in arrears.

As well as facing repossession, they also had to pay off their outstanding IBI property tax and expenses for the community of owners, which they had not been able to find the money for.

All this led to amounts exceeding 8,000 euros, which they said they simply could not pay – and they were terrified about where they would end up living if they could not.

Additionally, the couple's daughter – one of their three children - is very ill and would not have survived on the street.

When they heard that an unnamed donor had given them 8,500 euros, they said they felt as though they had won the lottery, and went straight to Novagalicia Bank to sign the papers.

They will also now be able to seek funding for their daughter to be treated by a specialist neurologist in Navarra.