‘It’s like giving caged birds the wings to fly’
More amputee children to get blades for running and swimming as £1.5m funding announced
‘Amputation is not a barrier to having a fulfilled life, so long as amputees have the limbs they need’
HUNDREDS of amputee children have received a boost after minsters announced another £1.5million to pay for NHS running and swimming blades to prepare the way for the next generation of Paralympians.
News of the extra money was hailed by Joanna Lumley, the actress and campaigner, as “like giving caged birds the wings to fly”.
The Government started funding running blades for children two years ago after a campaign to highlight the issue by Sarah Hope, the wife of Christopher Hope, a journalist at The Daily Telegraph.
Mrs Hope’s daughter Pollyanna lost her right leg below the knee when she was two years old after a bus struck her on a pavement in south London in 2007, also killing Mrs Hope’s mother.
The original £1.5million – which was announced by George Osborne in his final Budget as chancellor in March 2016 – only provided cash for research and new legs for two years, and runs out at the end of this month.
The extra cash for the blades is necessary because the NHS only provides low-tech prosthetic legs, which allow children to walk but not run, rather than more springy running blades.
In the past two years, 220 amputee children out of an estimated 2,500 in England have received running blades.
Stephen Barclay, a health minister, told The Telegraph: “We are fully committed to supporting children who have suffered limb loss or were born with a limb deficiency to get sport prosthetics. This latest funding will ensure the next generation of children with limb loss or limb deficiency will be able to lead an active life.”
As before, half of the cash will provide activity blades for amputee children and the rest will fund research. Mrs Hope said: “My daughter Polly- anna is an amputee and her life has been transformed – she is an incredible contemporary dancer and gymnast, inspiring others and showing that wonderful lives can be lived despite the loss of a limb.
“Amputation is not a barrier to having a fulfilled life, so long as amputees have the limbs they need. The Paralympic legacy will now continue to the next generation and amputee children will be able to run, dance, jump, play and keep up with their friends living the active, happy lives they deserve.”
Lumley, who has supported the campaign, told The Telegraph: “This news is simply wonderful. It is like giving caged birds the wings to fly. By funding proper running blades to these children, who are otherwise restricted to walking, the NHS demonstrates what it does best – taking care of the most needy and deserving. Now hundreds more kids will be able to run and dance and be utterly normal.”
Dame Cheryl Gillan, a Conservative MP and the chairman of a cross-party parliamentary group on limb loss, said: “It makes such a difference to the lives of children who have sadly lost a limb or limbs. For children, it enables them to take part in many of the activities that others take for granted.
“This will mean that many children have a chance to fulfil many of their sporting dreams.”