A TETBURY youngster was dealt a hammer blow by doctors when they told him he could not have an operation which could help him walk again just an hour before he was due to go in for surgery.

Following a successful year-long campaign to raise £35,000 to help pay for the selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR), which galvanised all of Tetbury, Lewis Munday was booked in to have the procedure at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol on Monday, March 24.

But the operation was cancelled after the anaesthetist was taken ill and a replacement could not be found.

However, the blow was softened when the hospital informed the nine-year-old and his family the operation would take place within the next 28 days.

Mum Louise Pointing said: “I literally felt that my stomach had fallen out when they told me.

“They have to give him one in the next 28 days which is a saving grace. They are going to find him one in the next few days – cancelling is nothing they could have helped.

“The surgeon was actually gutted.”

Lewis’ condition causes him to have stiff legs and use a walker.