Britain’s ‘kindest plumber’ buys £13,000 prosthetic for boy born with one arm

Seven-year-old Alex Sparkes used to wish his arm would grow back on his birthday (Pictures: SWNS)

Britain’s ‘kindest plumber’ has paid £12,700 so a little boy who was born with one arm can get a prosthetic.

James Anderson, 55, called seven-year-old Alex Sparkes last night to say: ‘I’ve just paid for your new arm.’

The plumber, whose company Depher provides free services for those in need, said he ‘fell in love’ with football fanatic Alex when he heard about the boy’s family trying to fundraise to buy him an arm.

Alex, who used to use his birthday wishes to ask for his arm to grow back, was on a list of patients due to have an NHS prosthetic arm before the pandemic. – but he was still waiting three years later.

When the family, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, visited an Open Bionics fair, Alex tried on one of their prosthetics for the first time.

Mum Dionne, 33, said: ‘We were there to get a feel for it. I said to my son: “Don’t ask me for it because I haven’t got the money”.

‘But they had a prototype on the table, and when he put his arm in it, the fingers opened up straight away. I looked at him and I started welling up. And I said “I have got to do this”.’

Alex loves playing football and wants to be able to take a throw-in (Picture: SWNS)

Alex’s mum has been trying to fundraise for her son to get a prosthetic arm (Picture: SWNS)

So, she and her teacher husband Robin, 32, starting trying to get the money together to buy the prosthetic for Alex, whose top priority is to be able to take a throw-in like the rest of his football club teammates.

James said: ‘Alex’s story drew me in. If Depher can do anything, this would be it. The arm will give a little boy his life back. I fell in love with him.

‘He will remember it for the rest of his life and it will make his life much better. It will make a little boy live again.

‘It was humbling to meet him, and it was wonderful to see his smile when I told him. It was an easy decision.’

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Footage shows an overwhelmed Alex jumping for joy after hearing the news. He said: ‘I want it so much. It would make me happy. It would mean the world to me.’

His mum said: ‘For us, it’s life-changing, and James has just done it from the kindness of his heart.

‘I never thought someone would be so kind. When James phoned me yesterday he just said: “Send me your bank details and I will send it”.

‘As soon as we left his home, the three of us had a massive hug. And when we got into the car, we started screaming.’

Alex first tried the prosthetic arm on at an Open Bionics fair (Picture: SWNS)

Alex was born without a right arm (Picture: SWNS)

Dionne explained how she’d had a normal pregnancy and didn’t expect that Alex would be born with only one arm after her scans came back clear.

She said: ‘At 36 weeks they did a scan. You could see one of his arms, and it looked like he was waving – like he was showing his arm.

‘They said his other arm was behind him, and I remember thinking: ‘At least he’s got ten fingers and ten toes’. That stuck with me.

‘I was in labour for 20 hours, and then I got to hold him for a few minutes before they took him away.

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‘But when I looked over at him again, I said: “What’s that? He’s got a missing arm?”

‘The silence was just something I will never forget. But when they brought him over again, he was using his arm as a dummy – sucking on it – and he looked so adorable.’

Alex, a Blackburn Rovers fan, dreams of getting a blue and white robotic arm bearing his team’s rose emblem.

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The seven-year-old’s football-fanatic’s main priority is to be able to take a throw-in like the rest of his club teammates.