A cerebral palsy sufferer who underwent a pioneering operation is walking properly for the first time in his life.

Josh Dunn, 19, from Endsleigh Close, Upton, was the first patient to have the procedure in the north of England in a coup for Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital.

The complex operation has reduced the ‘tightness’ in Josh’s muscles and, in combination with intensive physiotherapy, is helping him to bend his legs so that he can walk more normally rather than dragging his legs.

He is still using sticks but the dream is that he will one day cast them aside. Either way his progress, which has also seen him swim without floats for the first time, has made the nine-hour operation worthwhile.

Dad Phil said: “He’s got to get 19 years of strength back in his legs, it’s not a click-your-fingers job.”

Mum Joan admits there was a ‘scary’ period immediately after the op because the stiffness caused by his condition had allowed him to stand and that all went.

“He was like a new-born baby, starting again, but he’s doing really well walking on his sticks, but not as much as he should do!”

He is known for his big smile which makes him popular with everyone he meets. And despite his legs, arms and speech being affected by the condition, Josh is determined to fulfil his potential. As a student of West Cheshire College he has passed his IT, maths and English courses.

Josh drives an adapted car and is a professional wheelchair basketball and rugby league player. He has just returned from the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in Kent where he and 15-year-old brother Jon, who has a bone condition, played for Wales and the team came an admirable third.

Last summer Josh carried the Paralympic flame in a miner’s lamp through Ellesmere Port having collected it from London where he met David Cameron, Sebastian Coe and mayor Boris Johnson.

Alder Hey is only the third centre in the UK to offer the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) procedure, which involves cutting nerves in the spine which have an abnormal reflex response.

Neurosurgeon Benedetta Pettorini, who performed the surgery, is ‘absolutely over the moon’ with Josh’s progress and asked him to attend a seminar attended by other consultants.

Since Josh’s procedure a girl has undergone the same operation at Alder Hey with the hope she will benefit in the same way.