LIFE-CHANGING surgery in America has given eight-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer Ariella Byrne the chance to walk freely.

A brain injury from birth left Ariella – from Bebington – with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy.

It caused painful spasticity in the limbs, preventing her from walking independently.

She was forced to wear uncomfortable leg splints every day and had to rely on a wheelchair or standing frame to get around.

Still jet-lagged from the return trans-Atlantic trip Ariella's mother Suzanne revealed that within six months her daughter could be walking unaided.

In the meantime, however, she faces tough four-times weekly physiotherapy sessions, learning to walk using muscles she has never used before.

Suzanne, 45, said: "We are keeping everything crossed. Ariella is working really hard but she is getting stronger every day.

"I want my beautiful little girl to walk, run and dance just like she wants to."

Suzanne found out about the American treatment by talking to parents in a similar situation and discovering how successful it had been for other children.

A successful fund-raising campaign raised most of the £60,000 cost of the operation carried out at the Centre for Cerebral Palsy Spasticity in St Louis, Missouri last month.

The operation – which is not available on the NHS – was carried out by leading world specialist Mt TS Park.

The fund-raising campaign will continue as further cash is needed to covewr the cost of Ariella’s specialist physiotherapy treatment now she has returned from America.

Globe readers and local organisations and the national charity Caudwell Children helped to raise £19,000 and Chester-based Morgan Foundation contributed a massive £35,000.

Businessman Steve Morgan, who launched the Morgan Foundation in 2001, said the foundation has been impressed by Ariella’s courage and by Suzanne’s tremendous commitment, as well as the fantastic support they had received from hundred of local people across Wirral and Merseyside.

He said Ariella had touched many people’s hearts.