A WINCHESTER family is celebrating after their two-year-old son had a successful life-changing operation.

Abe Astur has just returned from the USA where he had an operation which will help him walk normally.

He suffers from spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy which makes his leg muscles very tight, restricting his movement.

But the £30,000 operation, selective dorsal rhizotomy or SDR, removed much of the spasticity, meaning he will be able to walk normally after physical therapy.

The family has been raising money for the operation throughout the last year and mum Leigh, of Manor Farm Green, Twyford, said she was delighted and very grateful.

Leigh, 35, said: “We are thrilled it went well. It's now a case of building up these muscles that Abe has never used before and we are pleased we made went through with this as it was the right decision.

“Abe has been amazing. The surgery was tough and we spent a week in hospital in St Louis, Missouri, as part of a month out there. But because he is so young he didn't fully understand what was going on and he accepted everything and handled it very well.”

Leigh said the family had no choice but to go to the USA as the procedure is not was not widely available in the UK.

She said: “This procedure should be more accessible and medical people should be more knowledgeable here. It's something we should be telling parents about here but they aren't because it's difficult to get it funded.

“We have been talking to Steve Brine about taking this issue to Parliament and he has been a fantastic help. It makes my blood boil to think children have grown up with difficulty when they could have had this operation.

Hopefully between us we can change just one child's life by alerting people to this procedure.”

They targeted raising £50,000 to pay for the operation and the following therapy and are very close to reaching it, thanks to events like a sponsored swim at St Swithun's school on Saturday, April 27, organised by Jill Terry, which raised £300.

The family, including dad Gavin, 38, and sister Thea, four, held a party at Marwell Activity Barn on Monday to spread the good news and thank donors.