A seven-year-old girl is finally able to eat ice cream and brush her own hair - after becoming the youngest in the UK to be fitted with a bionic 'hero' arm.
Caitlin Hutson was born with only one fully formed hand due to rare congenital condition.
Her underdeveloped left arm has five shortened fingers at the end but no bones, making basic tasks incredibly difficult for the youngster.
Her mum, Maria Hutson, 42, says up until this year, Caitlin has struggled by with a smile on her face - but a recent community fundraising effort has changed her life.
The family raised more than £18,000 for a bionic arm that was fitted last week (21/08), and Maria says her daughter is already bursting with confidence.
She is already relishing her new found capabilities including brushing her own hair, enjoying ice cream - and high-fiving her pals.
Maria, from Wymondham, Norfolk, said: "In the space of 24 hours her confidence has increased so much.
"Caitlin is strutting around the garden and dancing with it on - as a parent it's lovely to see. We're so grateful for everyone who made this dream a reality."
In 2016, Caitlin was born with an exceptionally rare condition called symbrachydactyly which affects just one in 32,000 births.
As a result, the bones in her left arm never formed properly, leaving her with five shortened fingers, a shortened forearm and no hand.
Throughout her early childhood, tasks like using cutlery, holding her dinner tray at school, and brushing her hair have been a struggle.
But after researching her condition last year, Maria and Caitlin's father Terry Hutson, 45, found a high-tech, but very expensive, solution.
They joined a waiting list for a bionic arm for Caitlin, and in December last year were invited up to Open Bionics in Bristol for a consultant's appointment.
Maria, a swimming teacher and mum-of-two, said: "Last year, we put her name down and to our surprise things moved pretty quickly.
"We went to Bristol in December, and Open Bionics originally said she needed to grow a bit more before being eligible.
"We also needed to raise the money for the arm itself which cost £13.5k.
"So we went away and started a GoFundMe, gathering donations from the local community and putting on fundraisers.
"This year, we've held numerous cake sales and a superhero day at Caitlin's school, and businesses and individuals have shown their support.
"We've been totally overwhelmed by people's generosity and kindness."
In total Caitlin's family raised £18.5k which was enough for the arm to be fitted with an extended warranty.
This means it can be replaced as she continues to grow, and the arm is covered for the next five years.
Since the fitting last week, Maria says Caitlin has quickly got used to the feeling of the technology and is loving life with her new 'hero arm'.
She said: "Small things which people like you and I never even think about are a massive deal to her.
"For the first time she can use cutlery without struggling and br
Caitlin Hutson was born with only one fully formed hand due to rare congenital condition.
Her underdeveloped left arm has five shortened fingers at the end but no bones, making basic tasks incredibly difficult for the youngster.
Her mum, Maria Hutson, 42, says up until this year, Caitlin has struggled by with a smile on her face - but a recent community fundraising effort has changed her life.
The family raised more than £18,000 for a bionic arm that was fitted last week (21/08), and Maria says her daughter is already bursting with confidence.
She is already relishing her new found capabilities including brushing her own hair, enjoying ice cream - and high-fiving her pals.
Maria, from Wymondham, Norfolk, said: "In the space of 24 hours her confidence has increased so much.
"Caitlin is strutting around the garden and dancing with it on - as a parent it's lovely to see. We're so grateful for everyone who made this dream a reality."
In 2016, Caitlin was born with an exceptionally rare condition called symbrachydactyly which affects just one in 32,000 births.
As a result, the bones in her left arm never formed properly, leaving her with five shortened fingers, a shortened forearm and no hand.
Throughout her early childhood, tasks like using cutlery, holding her dinner tray at school, and brushing her hair have been a struggle.
But after researching her condition last year, Maria and Caitlin's father Terry Hutson, 45, found a high-tech, but very expensive, solution.
They joined a waiting list for a bionic arm for Caitlin, and in December last year were invited up to Open Bionics in Bristol for a consultant's appointment.
Maria, a swimming teacher and mum-of-two, said: "Last year, we put her name down and to our surprise things moved pretty quickly.
"We went to Bristol in December, and Open Bionics originally said she needed to grow a bit more before being eligible.
"We also needed to raise the money for the arm itself which cost £13.5k.
"So we went away and started a GoFundMe, gathering donations from the local community and putting on fundraisers.
"This year, we've held numerous cake sales and a superhero day at Caitlin's school, and businesses and individuals have shown their support.
"We've been totally overwhelmed by people's generosity and kindness."
In total Caitlin's family raised £18.5k which was enough for the arm to be fitted with an extended warranty.
This means it can be replaced as she continues to grow, and the arm is covered for the next five years.
Since the fitting last week, Maria says Caitlin has quickly got used to the feeling of the technology and is loving life with her new 'hero arm'.
She said: "Small things which people like you and I never even think about are a massive deal to her.
"For the first time she can use cutlery without struggling and br
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [silence]
00:12 Caitlin was born with a condition called...
00:15 Tumor rectaculi.
00:16 Which means she was born missing part of her left hand.
00:19 So when she was born this was a total shock for us
00:21 because we didn't know before she was born.
00:23 She's been able to do all the milestones other children have
00:26 but it just takes a little bit more time, a little bit more effort
00:29 to work out the best way to do it.
00:31 We found out about Open Bionics a few years ago
00:34 and last November time I contacted them to put our name down
00:38 because we were aware at that time they generally weren't doing
00:41 bionic arms for children until they were 8 years old.
00:43 So fast forward to July this year, we went down,
00:46 we had two days down there didn't we?
00:48 And you had some casts taken, another assessment
00:52 and they made a test socket for you.
00:54 And then last week we went down and picked up your Hero arm.
00:57 So this is her Hero arm, her bionic arm, with a Disney cover on it.
01:02 What sort of things can you do with it now Caitlin?
01:04 I can freeze it, I can open and close it,
01:07 I can use these two fingers and these two fingers.
01:10 Do you want to do them?
01:11 Show them the different moves that you can do
01:13 because you can change the mode by pressing the back there can't you?
01:16 Yep.
01:18 It's still early days now but you're really getting the hang of how to use it aren't you?
01:21 And all the different things that you can do now you've got it.
01:24 I can hold the cover and then I can freeze it like on my hand.
01:28 Yep, so you can hold that movement so you can lift a cup up safely can't you?
01:33 Yeah.
01:36 Yep, you can shake hands with people, that's a good one.
01:38 And when it shows blue that means it's frozen.
01:41 And then I can press the middle button or I can pull it even more in to unfreeze it.
01:49 Having this bionic arm is going to give you a lot more confidence isn't it Caitlin?
01:53 You're already a lot more confident with it.
01:55 It's going to enable you to do lots of things that you can do with your peers.
01:59 When she goes to school they'll be having new dinner trays
02:02 so it'll be easier for you holding your dinner trays.
02:04 I think it's just that confidence as she becomes a young adult that it will give her.
02:08 What have your friends said when they've seen it?
02:11 Wow.
02:12 And you looking forward to going back to school and showing it off next week?
02:15 Yeah.
02:16 Yeah, I reckon there's going to be a lot of time spent giving people handshakes and high fives
02:20 when you go back to school isn't there?
02:21 Yeah.
02:23 Such an amazing arm obviously comes with a price tag.
02:26 And for her arm it was going to cost about £13,000 just for the arm
02:30 and then we've got extra warranty and covers and things after that.
02:34 So obviously that was a huge undertaking when we found out that's how much it was going to cost.
02:38 So we started a crowdfunding page in February
02:41 and within a matter of weeks we've been absolutely astounded.
02:45 We've had donations coming in from people we know, people we don't know, people from far and wide.
02:50 We've had cake sales, we've had Hero Days at your school haven't we.
02:54 The response has been amazing.
02:56 We've been able to reach our target and some.
02:59 We've had some grants.
03:00 So we've got £18,000 just about in the pot to secure her future with her arm
03:05 probably hopefully the next four or five years which has been amazing.
03:09 So I want to say thank you to everybody that's donated and given her these extra opportunities.
03:14 This is the opening and closing. I can put my thumb in three modes, one, two and three.
03:21 And then I can open it back up.
03:24 I can press the button, that thumb goes in and I can pull it in and then pull it out again, that one goes in.
03:31 I can do freeze mode, so like this.
03:38 And then I can squish it to open it and press the button.
03:44 (Squeaking)
03:53 Press button.
03:54 (Squeaking)