A teenager born with cerebral palsy, who was picked to play football for England, has had his leg amputated.
Jude Aston, 18, from Wolverhampton has said he is staying incredibly positive, having made the agonising decision to lose his leg.
“I was laughing and joking right up until I went to sleep”, he said.
The teenager developed complications following a series of leg procedures that began in childhood.
When he was 15, he had surgery to lengthen muscles to help him walk more easily and reduce aches he felt while playing for the West Bromwich Albion cerebral palsy football team.
But months after surgery he developed a condition called complex regional pain syndrome.
His case was one of the most severe doctors had ever seen, and more complexities meant his leg became stuck for the next three years – folded upwards at the knee towards his chest.
He had specialist treatment at a centre in Bath to help control his pain. But later, struggling with the awkward position of his leg, he decided to have his right leg amputated at the knee.
He had the operation at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in December, astounding nurses with his positive attitude.
“I was so ready for it mentally. I’d prepared for it for a long time. I had built up to that moment,” he said.
“I’d wondered how I’d feel when I woke up with half my leg missing, but when I did wake up I didn’t feel any different.
“I felt like it had been done for years. I still feel like that now.”
Jude spent a month in hospital, supported by specialist clinical teams.
Since then he has embraced life.
He sat next to his friend on the coach journey to a recent Aston Villa away match. Before the operation he would have had to stay in his wheelchair, clamped to the coach floor.
“We used to have to shout across the coach to each other, but now it’s nice to have someone to talk to,” he says.
He has also been able go out with his family in his father’s van – his leg position previously meant he could not sit in a car.
Jude is even planning to apply for a provisional driving licence.
And he can wear clothes normally again. Pre-operation, his jeans had to be adapted so he could get them over his leg. Now he is enjoying wearing new clothes which have been shortened.
However, his focus is on physiotherapy, with the hope of having a prosthetic leg in the future.
Ed Bache is a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon who led a team to carry out Jude’s amputation – and said the teenager had “far exceeded expectations”.
He said surgery was a last resort and not a usual option for patients like him.
“It’s not yet clear if he’ll be able to walk with a prosthetic, but at present that is his and my aim. Whether that will be achieved we don’t yet know,” he said.
Jude though, remains determined.
He’s an aspiring sports journalist with his own social media channels in which he has interviewed famous footballers, including the England star Jack Grealish, and former Villa boss and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard.
He also works part time for a council communications team, and is doing an online journalism course while recovering.
“I’m like a new man,” Jude says.