Oswaldtwistle boy, 7, to get bionic arm after plumber donates £12k
- Published
A boy who was born with one arm has said he is "excited" about being able to catch and throw a ball after a local plumber donated £12,600 for him to have a bionic arm fitted.
Alex, 7, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, received the donation after his parents set up a fundraising page.
James Anderson, who runs a non-profit company, said when he heard Alex's story he knew he had to help.
"I wanted to help make his life more liveable forever," he said.
Mr Anderson, of Burnley, set up charity Depher to help disabled and elderly people after a promise he made to his baby son William, who died in 2013, that he would "be the man that he would have grown up to have been".
He described Alex as "a robust little young man" who "just wants to do the things normal children do" and wished him "a beautiful future".
Alex's mum Dionne, 33, told BBC North West Tonight her son was "a lovely dreamer", who when he was younger, "used to tell other kids a crocodile or a shark had bitten his arm off".
"He's very active, he loves football, he loves swimming, he loves animals.
"In his head he is a normal little boy but when his friends go on bikes, he can't join them," she said.
"Simple everyday things like he can't learn to tie his own shoelaces, it affects his confidence, then every year on his birthday, he would always wish for a new arm."
Dionne said her son "had never taken to the NHS prosthetics" and in a bid to motivate him she and her husband Robin, 32, took him to a Hero Arm Experience Day in Liverpool earlier this month.
"I owed it to my son to let him try the technology," she said, "I wanted to motivate him for the future and to say there is hope."
A bionic prosthetic arm works by picking up signals from muscles using special sensors which then create a hand movement.
Dionne said when she saw "the shock on his face" when he tried a bionic arm for the first time she knew she "had to do anything to try and get him one".
The couple set up the fundraising page the same day and were planning on holding fundraising events over the summer.
"When we started fundraising we thought it was going to take a long time but to achieve the target within a week was absolutely brilliant," Robin said.
"Now growing up he'll have all the opportunities available to him."
Dionne said Mr Anderson's donation was "incredible" and she was "extremely grateful for the extra life" it will give to her son.
Alex, who will have a fitting at a specialist centre in Bristol next week, said he was looking forward to going fishing with his dad, riding a bike and playing football when he can "properly go in goal".
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