After months of fundraising ten-year-old Luca Railton leaves for America this week for surgery to save his legs, after the community helped raise £91,500 in five months.

Little Luca, who lives in Rodbourne near Malmesbury, travelled to Florida yesterday with his mother Teresa, 42, and father Alex, 43, for the first of four major operations.

Mrs Railton, who works for Zeal Solutions Ltd in Swindon, said: “I just want to be there now.

“I keep thinking ‘oh my goodness, we are going’.

“People have been amazing with fundraising; absolutely amazing.”

The Prior Park schoolboy was born with no bone in his right knee, no right tibia (the bone below the knee) and only a partial left tibia due to a rare condition called bilateral tibial hemimelia, which affects one in a million people.

Despite undergoing more than 60 hours of surgery to help get him walking with the aid of leg supports, doctors warned him last year that there was no more they could do and Luca would have to have his right leg amputated or choose to have it fused straight.

Determined to pursue other options, the family found a surgeon in America, Dr Dror Paley, who believes he can help Luca to walk pain free without callipers, having treated more than 200 others with the condition.

The family were told they would need to raise £135,000 for all four operations and, within five months, £91,500 of that target, which will pay for the first three, has been made by fundraising, family savings and donations from relatives.

“So many people have been involved in Luca’s journey since September so I want to do a blog and update everyone to let them know what’s happening,” said Mrs Railton.

Luca’s first operation is on Thursday, March 27, and the second is due in May.