Brave Ellis takes life one step at a time (From Hereford Times)

Ellis Jones is learning to walk following life-changing operation

12:00pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News By Bill Tanner

IMAGINE being afraid to put one foot in front of the other. That’s the fear Ellis Jones has to conquer every day.

Six months on from the operation that the county raised £45,000 to fund, Ellis is ready to show how hard he’s worked to earn that money.

Because he can now stand on his own two feet and, hand in hand with mum Tara, can put those feet forward a step at a time.

Tara says progress since the cutting edge surgery in St Louis, USA, has been as slow and steady as it was expected to be. And right now, that’s more than enough.

The Hereford Times has told Ellis’s story from the beginning: how a little boy born with cerebral palsy needed a highly specialist operation to effectively “rewire” him to walk unaided.

It was a cause that united the county around one of the most amazing fund-raising efforts ever undertaken here. Something about Ellis and his family – and their simple wish for him to walk – struck a chord.

The £45,000 that seemed a dream from the start was raised within a matter of months.

Ellis had his operation in March and was back home by April in time to turn three.

Since then, it’s been physio five days a week, so intensive that his newly discovered calf muscles are starting to define. But he’s growing too, in spurts that can quickly knock progress back.

With confidence crucial, Ellis has not yet entirely given up on his walker. So there’s everyday joy in something as simple as seeing him sit up unaided in chair.

“He’s going to walk, it will take time, but he’s going to walk,” says Tara – a resolve put to the test in the family’s garden in Bobblestock, Hereford, every day.

“It’s scary, mummy,” says Ellis, setting off hand-on-hand with mum once again.

One foot in front of the other, a step at a time.