WHEN little Francesca Sivess said she wanted to give her younger sister toes for Christmas it brought a tear to her mum's eye.

Thanks to the generosity of Daily Echo readers and five-year-old Francesca's bravery, Christmas has come early for the young Ferndown family as doctors create prosthetic toes for amputee Sophie Sivess using a mould of her sister's foot.

This summer, the Echo launched a campaign for Sophie, four, who, aftercontracting blood poisoning through a chickenpox spot, had to have one of her feet, and the toes on the other, amputated.

The months she spent recovering in hospital meant her father Darren had to virtually give up work and now her parents are struggling to pay the mortgage and provide Sophie with everything she needs.

The Echo was inundated with letters of support and donations to buy Sophie a more realistic prosthetic foot and toes.

So far readers have raised more than £3,100 towards Sophie's plight.

And now a specialist team at Dorset Orthopaedic are hard at work making Sophie's toes. They will be just like her sister's and are due to be fitted within a fortnight.

Sophie's mother, Elly, said: "Unfortunately we can't make Sophie's foot exactly the same as it was before. But when we realised we could use a mould of Francesca's foot and she said she wanted to give Sophie toes for Christmas, it made me cry.

"I am very proud of Francesca for doing this for Sophie. She was very nervous but she was really brave. The specialists took lots of photos of Francesca's foot and put it in something which resembled freezing cold Angel Delight before asking her to pull it out very slowly as the mould set. They'll match the new foot with Sophie's skin tone.

"Sophie is so pleased to be having new toes and wants to have her friends round for a toenail painting party."

Having suffered a fractured femur bone in the other leg because her bones were left weakened by the blood poisoning, it will be a while before Sophie has recovered enough for a prosthetic leg, but the money raised by the Echo and the marathon walk by Sandra Gleeson and Glyn Foulger means there is enough in the pot to pay for it.

The new prosthetic toes are fitted to a lifelike foot which slides on over Sophie's existing foot. They will look just like real ones and can even endure the strong chemicals in nail polish remover.

To help provide enough money for future prostheses for Sophie, send cheques payable to Walking for Sophie to: Daily Echo, Mill Court, Mill Lane, Wimborne, BH21 1JQ.

First published: October 13