This is Gloucestershire --DANIEL Morgan's parents had to raise £80,000 to take him to Missouri in the US for life-changing surgery because the operation was not funded by NHS Gloucestershire.
The six-year-old from Leckhampton had been wheelchair- bound because he has spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.
However, he is now able to walk around Cheltenham town centre with his walker after having the selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedure just before Christmas.
His parents raised the money for the operation and trip to American with support from the Echo.
His mum Helen, 38, said health professionals who worked with Daniel had told her it was not worth applying to NHS Gloucestershire for funding because it had never paid for the operation before. She said: "The NHS is looking at its budget on a year-by-year basis and saying that this operation will cost £35,000.
"But if you look at what these children will cost the system over their lifetime if they don't have the operation, in terms of future surgery and disability benefits, it is way more."
She added: "The fact that Daniel was able to walk all the way around Cheltenham town centre with his walker, which he would never have been able to do before the surgery, shows that the operation does make a huge difference to the lives of children." Reported by This is 17 hours ago.