Jamie’s bid to walk gets a helping hand

LITTLE Jamie Lafferty has moved his left leg for the first time by himself.

Unlike other children, the two-year-old had to lay flat on his back and use a kind of upside-down bicycle machine to power the left leg with his right arm, using separate pedals. It’s a change from what he is used to, pushing himself around with his hands on a walking aid.

Jamie, an only child who will be three in May, has spina bifida — because of a pre-birth defect his spinal column cannot transmit all the messages to his brain necessary to regulate limb movements.