The parents of Ethan Smith, aged five from Middlemore, were told when he was three years old that he would never be able to walk.

However Pete Spencer’s Helping Hands Memorial Fund stepped in with a donation of around £500 to buy a special walking frame which would enable Ethan to walk.

Dawn Smith, Ethan’s mum, said: “Doctors didn’t think he would walk at all in his life and to see him up on his feet and walking around just takes my breath away.”

Ethan suffers from Jacobsen Syndrome, which affects just one in 100,000 births.

For Ethan, this has meant he has a lack of muscle tone and having the walking frame will allow him to build this up.

The family took delivery of the walking frame two weeks ago and it is currently on loan to Fairfields School in Northampton which Ethan attends.

It was while trying out one of the walking frames at the school that staff saw that Ethan could walk and it encouraged his mother to apply for funding. The frame will stay at the school, where Ethan uses it the most, while it orders one for itself.

Mrs Smith added: “It gives him a lot more independence. He is very mobile at the moment and he can crawl on his knees very well but this means that he can now play outside and can be a bit more like a regular little boy and being able to walk is a big achievement for him.

“He is such a happy little boy and now that he has got this walking frame he is even happier.

“I just want to say a big thank you to Helping Hands and all the people who have supported the charity because without it, Ethan would have had to wait a lot longer for a walking frame.”