A brave little girl born with only one fully formed arm is able to ride her bike after children built a special extension for her handlebar as part of a school project.
Fun-loving Sophie Smith, two, struggled to balance on her pink and white cycle because she was born with half a right arm.
But after hearing of Sophie's troubles school pupils designed an extension that allows her to rest the end of her arm on the handlebar, giving her much better control.
Happy days: Brave Sophie Smith is now able to ride her bike more comfortably after local children built a special handlebar extension for her to use
Now the toddler is able to effortlessly dash about on the two-wheel bike.
The school's head of technology set the project to the Year 10 engineering pupils, aged 14 and 15, after talking to Sophie's grandmother, Pat, who works at the school.
Pat said Sophie had struggled during a sponsored ride because of her arm.
Pupils Josh Collins-Marsh and Konner Bracher-Walsh, at Testwood Sports College, in Totton, Hants, set to work and even designed the extension to be co-ordinated with Sophie's favourite colour, pink.
Sophie's mother, Kelly Rogers, 32, said her and her partner, Ryan Smith, 28, were delighted their daughter is happy with the special adaption.
Kelly, an electronics store cashier, said: 'Sophie is a really active girl and the special bike is perfect for her because she doesn't feel different to any other children.
'It means she can keep up with friends her own age and as soon as she jumped on the saddle there was no holding her back.
'Before she had real trouble balancing and it was a struggle. She's really thankful to the school for coming up with the design.
Help: Year 10 engineering pupils at Testwood Sports College created the special extension as part of a class project
'She's a very outgoing girl and all her friends are really chuffed she can ride with them.
'It's lovely when you see her cycling along having the time of her life with a big smile on her face.' Sophie, who turns three on Monday, was born with half an arm because her mother suffered from Amniotic Band Syndrome when Sophie was in the womb.
It occurs when the amniotic sac is torn and band-like fibres become entangled in the baby's limbs, impairing growth.
Pat, 55, said: 'It's absolutely amazing and if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it.
'She just jumped on and was away. When I went to give her a push she even said 'no granny, I do it'.
'If I had realised she was going to go that fast I would've put her helmet on!
'What the pupils came up with is different to what I've seen before.
'They've even colour co-ordinated it so it matched her pink bike, because she's a very pink girl.
Overjoyed: A clearly delighted Sophie shows off how she is able to ride her bike more easily now
'She's a very active child and doesn't want her condition to hold her back. Sophie loves the bike and she's using it at home now.' Head of technology Geoff Powell said: 'My colleague was chatting to Pat about what we would do with our engineers and she mentioned that Sophie only has half an arm and was having difficulty on her two-wheeler.
'We set it as a design and prototype project with our students, and what we ended up with was a combination of two designs.
'She is missing the lower part of her arm and was having to lean forward so it's a little extension that goes on to the handlebars and a socket to fit onto her stump.
'Instead of being something the exam board provided it was a real exercise, and they had to look at real measurements and a real person, which was a major difference.
'We got some really generous donations from people so it was a real community effort.'
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar