MY BIONIC GIRL
Special new arm lets Harmonie-rose hold mum’s hand at last
SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Harmonie-rose Allen can hold her mother’s hand for the very first time – thanks to her revolutionary bionic arm.
It’s a day her parents never thought they would see as their daughter had to have all four limbs removed at the age of 10 months after contracting meningitis.
They feared Harmonie would be condemned to a life of misery and loneliness, but the youngster refused to be told what she couldn’t do – going on to thrive in mainstream school and raise thousands of pounds for charity.
On Thursday, after months of fittings and adjustments, Harmonie got to take her arm home from the Dorset Orthopaedic Clinic in Ringwood. She received two prosthetic legs from the clinic three years ago, but they do not have the same cutting-edge technology.
Her new Myo Electric prosthetic has special sensors that react to electrical pulses on the surface of the skin and mimic human movement. This means Harmonie can now bend her new wrist and elbow effortlessly.
Mum Freya, 27, said: “While she’s achieved so much in her short life, this means she can do other things we all take for granted, like opening door handles and holding my hand – something she’s always dreamed of.”
Boost
During the first lockdown last year – when the 2020 London Marathon was cancelled – Harmonie carried out her own 2.6 Challenge.
She raised a staggering £76,000 by jumping 26 times on a trampoline, doing 26 cartwheels, running 2.6 metres 26 times without prosthetic legs, drawing 26 ‘Stay Safe’ rainbow posters, swimming to the bottom of a pool 26 times, and reciting the alphabet 26 times.
Just before Christmas, Harmonie was told she had been selected to join the ‘Lionhearts’ squad as one of the 21 everyday heroes of the pandemic. Others included Captain Sir Tom Moore and Joe Wicks.
Freya said: “Getting this new arm has capped off the best year ever for Harmonie.
“If she ever wanted to pick something up before, she would have to hold it between her head and her stump. She never gave up, but this will give her such a boost.”
Harmonie has always managed to keep up with her schoolfriends in her home town of Bath, but Freya said that having her new arm “will really get her creative juices flowing”.
In 2019, Harmonie did the Bath Half-marathon in a wheelchair, walking the final section on her prosthetic legs.
Last summer, she was named the youngest-ever ambassador for Meningitis Now. And in November, she received a gold medal from the International Paralympic Committee’s Inclusive Sports Challenge.
Freya said: “All Harmonie ever wants to do is inspire others to not give up,” added Freya.
All she ever wants to do is inspire others not
to give up
A MAN who believes his grandfather was Peter Sutcliffe’s first victim says lives were lost because police were convinced the killer attacked only women.
Dad-of-five Fred Craven was killed at his bookmakers’ shop in Bingley, West Yorks, on April 22, 1966.
Fred – 4ft 7in and with a hunched back from a spinal disease – died in the same way as the Yorkshire Ripper’s 13 official victims, battered over the head with a blunt instrument.
The murder went unsolved but, 40 years after Sutcliffe’s arrest, Fred’s family want the case reopened.
Grandson Lee Craven, 51, said: “I feel strongly that my grandfather was the first victim of the Yorkshire Ripper.
“I think he found he enjoyed it and he had a long run, I’m afraid.”
Fred, 60, lived only doors away from Sutcliffe and his wife Sonia – and the killer used to go to his house for tea.
His death certificate says he was killed by “person or persons unknown”.
Lee, who works in Bradford’s textiles industry, said: “The police made the wrong assumption that not only was Sutcliffe targeting prostitutes, but just targeting women.
“It threw the investigation completely. Sutcliffe wasn’t motivated by his uncontrollable hatred of women – he was attacking anyone who was vulnerable, like my grandfather.
“They should have taken a broader approach from the beginning.”
After a six-year manhunt, Sutcliffe was given a 20-year life sentence in 1981 for the murders of 13 women.
He was still in jail when he died in November aged 74 after getting Covid.
But Lee’s family and several of Sutcliffe’s victims who survived – such as Tracy Browne, who was attacked aged just 14 – say police ignored witness statements that he had a strong local Yorkshire accent.
Lee and Tracy, now 59, both speak out in new documentary The Yorkshire Ripper’s New Victims.
In it, Tracy insists: “If they’d taken it more seriously they’d have found him quicker and a lot more women
would have survived.” Lee added: “I want the myth exposed that he had uncontrollable hatred of women.
“He attacked the vulnerable. He was an opportunist killer and a coward.”
Former police intelligence officer Chris Clark believes Sutcliffe attacked four men, including Fred.
Sutcliffe always insisted his victims were all female – but Lee says that was to present himself as a “victim of uncontrollable rage against women”.
He said: “There could absolutely be more victims. It’s a tragedy for all the families who have never had closure.”
The Yorkshire Ripper’s New Victims, Channel 5, Thursday, 9pm
He attacked the vulnerable... he was an opportunist
and coward