TWO-year-old Josh Winsborrow and his family have had the best early Christmas present they could have wished for.

Earlier this month they took delivery of a new, bright yellow motorised wheelchair that allows the disabled Josh, who can hardly move unaided, to get around for the first time in his life.

Josh lives in Kingsteignton, with his mum and dad, Lisa and Leigh, and four-year-old sister Megan.

The Permobil is a marvellous machine – its fully charged battery allows it to run for 12 miles – but at £9,500 it does not come cheap. However, in a flurry of events, in just five months friends and wellwishers raised nearly £8,000 towards the cost.

The remarkable campaign was the brainchild of three of Mrs Winsborrow's work colleagues – Jackie Pile, Jane Snell and Valerie Tooley – at the Boots store in the Winsborrows' home town of Teignmouth.

Josh was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a hereditary condition that luckily has not affected his sister Megan. One-in-40 people are carriers, but there is only a one-in-16,000 chance of carriers meeting and having affected children.

'We didn't realise that Josh had the condition until he was 18 months old,' said Mrs Winsborrow.

'There is no treatment available at present, so we just do the best we can. He has regular weekly physio at the John Parkes unit at Torbay Hospital, and he's also having hydrotherapy to help with his leg that was broken when Megan accidentally fell on him.'

It was a physio at the unit who, back in June, suggested to the winsborrow's that they obtained a Permobil for Josh.

'Quite simply, it has transformed his life and brought him on in leaps and bounds,' said his mum.

'He has all the needs of an ordinary child – he's in the Terrible Twos at the moment – and just wants to be active.

'He can now get milk from the fridge and letters from the letterbox, and it has really helped him with Megan. They can at last play with each other, hide and seek, and so on.'

Josh is due to start at St Michael's pre-school, Kingsteignton, in March.

It is heartening to see that, thanks to the generous gift of the wheelchair, he is now far better equipped to tackle everyday life, said a friend of the family.