Britain’s ‘kindest plumber’ gifts £13,000 to give boy, 7, a bionic arm
Britain’s ‘kindest plumber’ has donated nearly £13,000 to pay for a new bionic arm for a football-mad boy who was born without a right arm.
Charity champion James Anderson, 55, from Burnley, Lancashire made the generous gesture after being touched by Alex Sparkes’ touching story.
Alex’s mother, Dionne Sparkes, 33, from Oswaldtwistle, made a bid to raise £12,700 for the arm so the seven-year-old could take a throw-in along with the rest of his football club teammates.
The Blackburn Rovers season ticket holder dreamed of getting a blue and white robot arm with his team’s rose crest on it.
And he was shocked when James told him Tuesday night, “I just paid for your new arm.”
Charity champion James Anderson, 55, from Burnley, Lancashire offered to pay nearly £13,000 so that Alex Sparkes, pictured, could get the bionic arm he’s been dreaming of
Seven-year-old Alex was born without an arm to the surprise of both his mother and the delivery team, in what has been called a “sporadic” occurrence. Pictured as a toddler
A moving video capturing the moment showed Alex jumping for joy at the news.
He said, ‘I want it so badly. It would make me happy. It would mean the world to me.’
Dionne said she had no idea he was missing a limb until her “wayward” son was born in hospital without a right arm.
And she said that while the boy was “beloved” by his friends, he had spent the past few birthdays “wishing” his arm would grow back — only to be told it couldn’t.
But Dionne said his new arm would be life-changing after James’ generous donation to his home.
She said, “It’s life-changing for us, and James just did it out of the goodness of his heart.
“I never thought anyone would be so nice. When James called me yesterday he just said, ‘Send me your bank details and I’ll send them over’.
“As soon as we left his house, all three of us got a huge hug. And when we got in the car, we started screaming.
“Alex said, ‘I’ve got a new arm!’ He absolutely loved it.’
James was dubbed “Britain’s kindest plumber” because he refused to take money from his older clients
Alex born after birth. His mother Dionne explained that the fact that Alex had no arm did not show up on her pregnancy scans
Little Alex, pictured as a baby, wants to be ‘normal’, his mother Dionne said, adding that James’ generosity had been ‘life-changing’
Alex as a toddler. Dionne revealed that the football fan spent his birthdays wishing his arm would grow back
James, whose company Depher has helped millions of dollars, “fell in love” with Alex after Carl Everitt, the co-owner of a local ice hockey club, told him about his fundraiser.
He said, “His story attracted me. If Depher can do anything, this is 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’ll 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.
He smiles and is happy and moves on with his life. It’s great to see a young boy go through so much and just want to be as normal as possible.”
Alex attended a football game with his father Robin, left, and his mother Dionne, right, who started his charity drive
Alex, pictured recently, wearing an adult prosthetic arm. Once he turns eight, the seven-year-old will soon get a real prosthesis
Dionne said she had a normal pregnancy and didn’t expect Alex to be born with only one arm after her scans came back clear.
And one child’s mother said she would never forget the “silence” that descended on her labor unit when she told the nurses that her son didn’t have a full set of limbs.
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 has stayed with me.
“I was in labor for 20 hours and then I got to hold him for a few minutes before they took him away.
“But when I looked at him again, I said, ‘What’s that? Does he have a missing arm?’
“The silence was just something I will never forget. But when they brought him back upstairs, he was using his arm as a pacifier – sucking on it – and he looked so cute.”
Doctors later investigated the reason for Alex’s missing appendage and decided it was due to a “sporadic event,” which happened by chance.
But crushingly, Dionne, who works for gambling company Ladbrokes, said young children were “scared” of him when he first started school after seeing his only arm.
And he’d also spent his birthday “wishing” his missing arm to reappear.
James, whose company Depher has helped millions of dollars, “fell in love” with Alex after Carl Everitt, the co-owner of a local ice hockey club, told him about his fundraiser.
She said, “Alex just wants to be normal. On his fifth birthday he wished his arm would grow back. I had to tell him he couldn’t make such a wish.
He was on a list of patients to receive an NHS prosthetic arm before the pandemic, but three years later she said he was still waiting.
Dionne next visited an Open Bionics trade show, which is making a robotic arm so advanced that wearers can pick up a pin with their fingers, using their leftover muscles.
And the mother knew that when he first tried on one of their prosthetics, she had to somehow find the money for it from her husband, 32-year-old teacher Robin.
She said, “When Alex turned five, we heard about Open Bionics and put his name down, but they said he had to be at least eight because they didn’t make it small enough.
‘Then we went to the Open Bionics event. We were there to get a feel for it. I said to my son, “Don’t ask me because I don’t have the money”.
“But they had a prototype on the table, and when he put his arm in it, the fingers opened immediately.
“I looked at him and I started to well up. And I said, “I have to do this.”‘