LUKE Mortimer, 9, gives the okay sign with his first robotic arm purchased by donations from generous wellwishers and friends of the brave youngster.

Luke’s family have been raising money for special prosthetics to allow him to be as independent as possible since the rugby-mad youngster and member of Skipton Rugby Club was struck down with bacterial meningitis three years ago.

Luke lost his legs at the knees and arms above the elbows to sepsis but is never seen without a smile.

Fundraising has to be done constantly to help pay for the ‘hero’ arms, as he calls them, as they have to be replaced as he grows.

Luke’s dad, Adam, from Embsay, near Skipton, said: “We went for the left arm first as it is his strongest arm. It has taken a little bit of getting used to as Luke is having to learn how to have and use a hand again.

“The arm is also quite heavy so Luke is having to get used to the extra weight too. That being said he is doing really well with it and is learning to do various tasks with it. He is starting with quite simple things such as picking various sized objects up. With no feedback from the hand this is harder than it sounds.

“We hope that he will progress to trying to hold a brush and doing some drawing before he then moves on to gripping a pen and hopefully doing some writing. As usual Luke puts every effort into learning these things.

“Luke is also about to take a new leap with his legs moving from legs with a static foot to his first set of blades. Again this will be another learning curve. He will have to re-learn his balance and as he will get more spring from the blades he will have to learn how to walk in them again. Hopefully though due to the spring of the blade he will be able to run in them meaning he will be able to keep up with his friends."

On August 20 there will be a fundraising family fun day at Skipton Rugby Club, from 11am to 5pm with bar and barbecue. There will be stalls, bouncy castle, entertainment by Martyn Crofts, a couple of movie cars, and Bumblebee, Spiderman and Chewbacca will be appearing during the day.

There is more information about Luke's journey to recovery on his Facebook page ThisIsLuke.

Further details and to donate to Luke’s fundraiser go to: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/adam-mortimer-01