Tony is due to have a life changing operation this year (2024) that will enable him to be much more mobile into his teenage years and adulthood. This operation can only be carried out in two parts of the world, luckily for us one of them is the children's hospital at Sheffield. It will however, mean that Tony and his mum Paula, will need to travel between London and Sheffield for the best part of a year!

During the operation Tonys left thigh bone will be removed and cut into four, turned around and put back into his leg and held in place by a cage. Recovery will take a year, as it aims to grow his left thigh to a similar size to his right and will also stabilise his left hip, which currently is permanently dislocated.

After the operation and during his recovery he will be treated as an outpatient and he and Paula will need to rent accommodation near to the hospital, where she can park her car and enable Tony to move from car to wheelchair and wheelchair to bed. Paula and Mark have 7 other children and as you can imagine the cost of living has hit them hard, this extra expense is not going to be easy to find.

We would like to be very clear that all the £1.9 raised by Tony and Paula so far has gone to charity not to Tony himself or the Hudgell family. The money from this fundraiser will go to Paula and Mark to enable them to cover the costs of his operation and any other family expenses during this time, if more money is raised than is needed any additional money will be used for Tonys future needs that directly link to his disability and care costs.