ALL little Sophie Sivess wants is to walk around again like her friends.

The four-year-old from Ferndown suffered such severe blood poisoning after a septicaemia infection got in through a chicken pox spot that she had to have her right foot and the toes on her left foot amputated.

But her family says the standard NHS prosthesis is so basic that other children say it's like a wooden leg. Now two willing fund-raisers are trying to raise enough money for a real-looking silicon prosthesis and cosmetic surgery to provide her with toes on the other foot.

Having spent time in intensive care with her parents Elly and Darren preparing for the worst, Sophie had to undergo painful skin grafts and procedures to take away dead skin and muscle. But when she was finally allowed home after more than three months in hospital her leg, fragile from the blood poisoning, broke and it could take years to heal.

The tragedy is already placing a financial strain on her devastated family who have had to re-mortgage their house and borrow thousands of pounds from family members to provide Sophie with everything she needs and to stay afloat. Endless hospital trips and caring for their eldest child Francesca, 5, meant Darren had to virtually abandon his electrical contracting business.

Elly, 25, said: "This has been devastating, it has changed our lives forever. She used to charge around the house like a bull, we bought her a bike at Christmas and she's never ridden it. Words can't say what affect this has had on us.

"We used to be financially secure and never struggled but this has caused a real strain.

"We've had to buy things like a special car seat, every time we buy shoes we have to buy two pairs because her other foot doesn't have toes and is a different size.

"She wants a leg that feels like skin - she had that before and through no fault of her own she lost it, now she has something not much better than a wooden leg.

"I am so proud of both my girls - they've been through so much and they're both still smiling."

The receptionist at Sophie's doctors surgery Sandra Gleeson was so moved by the family's plight that she and her friend Glyn Foulger have launched an appeal "Walking for Sophie" and plan to walk 26 miles later this month to raise funds for a more advanced prosthesis and equipment to help Sophie in the future.

Sophie will be in and out of hospital for the rest of her life for skin grafts and will constantly need new prosthesis's as her body continues to outgrow the old ones.

First published: Sept 3