13236/3GAZETTE & HERALD: BURSTING with excitement at the prospect of a holiday to America, Lydia Cross enjoyed another special treat this week having her 'toenails' painted in a real-life beauty parlour.

Lydia, three, of Chippenham, was invited along to Beauty for Everyone in The Causeway, Chippenham, for a coat of red and blue glitter nail polish on her prosthetic, but life-like toes.

Beauty for Everyone owner Natalie Howson read Lydia's story in the Gazette and was so amazed by her courage she decided to add her own touch of magic to the process.

Lydia suffered the amputation of both her legs below the knee in December, after developing septicaemia following the HIB virus.

Her mum Jodie, 34, said: "When Lydia was little she always used to ask to have her toes painted like mine, but I always told her she would have to wait until she was bigger.

"Then she lost her legs and I would have given anything to have gone back and painted her toenails for her. To see her standing here on her new legs, with her toes pink and her open-toed shoes is just amazing.''

On Wednesday, Lydia and her family jetted off to Florida on a trip of a lifetime to the Animal Kingdom.

The three-week trip was donated to the family by a businessman from London who had read of Lydia's plight. The Gazette's Lydia Cross Appeal now stands at £30,500.

All the money raised will be used to meet the £12,000 a year costs for her treatment at the Dorset Orthopaedic Clinic.