Mum's £60,000 bid to give seven-year-old X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing fan Ariella Byrne chance to walk

Oct 26 2010 by Lorna Hughes, Liverpool Echo

A LITTLE girl who loves dancing is hoping to take her first proper steps at the age of seven.

Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor fan Ariella Byrne has a condition which means her legs are unable to hold her weight.

She has to wear uncomfortable leg splints every day and relies on a wheelchair or standing frame.

Ariella was faced with a lifetime of operations, botox injections and physiotherapy.

But mum Suzanne, from Bebington, is now trying to raise £60,000 for a ground-breaking operation which could help her walk independently for the first time.

She said: “Ariella is a bright and beautiful little girl, she desperately wants to walk but without this operation I fear her childhood will slip away.

“Nobody wants to consider their child’s future and face the prospect of endless operations, painful physiotherapy.

“She’s just a normal, bright little girl who loves life and I want her to walk, run and dance just like she wants to.”

Heswall Primary School pupil Ariella was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy at 18 months old.