When seven-year-old Anu from Birmingham returned to school, she couldn’t wait to see her friends again - and for a very special reason.
An adorable video posted by BBC Midlands Today captured the moment the young amputee entered the school yard wearing her new prosthetic sports blade.
Anu's schoolmates were equally delighted to see her, and entranced by her new pink blade. The other little girls and boys swarmed around her, hugging her and asking her about her new prosthesis.
"Is that your new pink leg?" asked one friend as Anu proudly walked around the playground. "Wow!" another exclaimed, admiring Anu’s new leg.
The leg gives Anu the freedom to enjoy all the fun of the playground; running, jumping and skipping with her classmates.
Anu had her leg amputated shortly after birth and, until now, couldn’t race around with her friends. But now, the new pink sports blade allows her to have fun and keep up with her friends.
This is the only type of prosthetic leg that allows amputees to run and play; prior to this, prosthetic legs available on the NHS only allowed amputees to walk.
Last year, a £1.5m funding injection to the NHS allowed them to research the benefits of the blades, according to The Telegraph. £500,000 of that funding was allocated to fund new sports prosthetics for 500 children - including Anu - to allow them to run and swim. It’s hoped that these blades will allow children to compete in the Paralympics, in the future.
Anu’s family have been supported by the West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre for the treatment.
The funding is the result of a campaign by the family of Telegraph journalist Christopher Hope, whose daughter Pollyanna lost her right leg below the knee when a bus hit her on a pavement in London, in 2007, when she was two years old.
In the same incident, Sarah Hope - Pollyanna’s mother - was badly injured, and Sarah's mother, Elizabeth, was killed.
In January, Ben Moore became one of the first children to be fitted with the new blade. He made the brave decision to have his lower leg amputated at the age of 10 after it failed to develop properly, according to BBC News. Ben, now 13, can enjoy sports and can run with his blade, which his prosthetic leg did not allow.
Meanwhile, little Anu is delighted with her new leg and is loving all the freedom and benefits that come with it.
Such a heartwarming scene, we wish her all the best.