1. Michael Gays has literally grown himself a new leg after being born with a withered limb
2. Ever since he was a small boy, Michael Gays has dreaded his bedtime.
While other children nodded off to their sweet dreams, he had to sit and turn the screws on the metal cage that stretched his withered right leg.
Sometimes during the ten long years of treatment, the pain was so bad that he had to have morphine. But not once did he shirk from his task.
Yesterday, that courage paid off. Michael, now 19, stood tall for the first time on two legs of identical length.
His right limb has been lengthened an incredible nine inches, after 22 operations including three in which his leg was broken.
'I was so excited,' he said. 'I'd been waiting for this moment all my life. It's all I would think of when I was fed up and in pain. It kept me strong.'
Doctors say it will be two months until Michael has enough strength to run, cycle and do everything else he is just dying to do.
Luckily, patience is something he is very good at.
At birth, Michael's right leg was twisted, had no calf bone (or fibula), no ankle and just three toes.
The rare disorder, called fibular aplasia, affects around one in 100,000 children.
3. Hard times ahead: Michael is pictured here aged three months with his twisted right leg
As the rest of his body grew normally, the difference in the length of his legs became huge, leaving his right a shrivelled stump.
His parents Ross, 50, who runs a company that helps people move their pets overseas, and Anna-Maria, 48, of Brampton, Cambridgeshire, were told that he could either spend his life in a wheelchair or endure the long process of breaking and stretching the leg.
4. Michael endured a metal cage with metal spikes drilled into his bone
5. An x-ray shows Michael's leg after an operation
6. They decided to try the treatment, which began when Michael was 11 months old.
Surgeons lengthened his achilles tendon and pinned his heel into place with a wire to turn and fix his foot in the right position.
Enlarge An x-ray shows Michael's leg after an operation
The first surgery where he had the shin (or tibia) broken and the metal cage fitted was carried out in 1997 at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
The cage, called a Taylor spatial frame, had metal spikes that were drilled into the bone.
He had to turn the screws himself each day, millimetre by agonising millimetre. The bone then knitted together and lengthened as it healed.
That first cage lengthened his leg by two inches over five months.
The second operation was in 2001, leading to just under five inches of growth in nine months.
The final surgical break was made last year and the leg then grew the remaining inches after the last cage was fitted for 62 days. His lengthened and strengthened tibia has now replaced his missing fibula.
Michael also had operations to lengthen tendons, straighten the bone and reconstruct his foot and underwent seven corrective procedures before the age of four.
Enlarge Caged: Michael is pictured here aged 12 in one of his many stays in hospital with the metal frame stretching his leg
Once the final cage came off, doctors put a plaster cast on the leg to be sure he didn't put too much weight on it too soon. Yesterday, that too came off.
Michael, who can now stand his full 6ft1in, said: 'I wanted to run and jump but I have to take it easy for a few months until it's properly strong. Then there is nothing I won't do. I can't wait. Now I'll be no different from anyone else.'
He added: 'The pain at times was horrific. I couldn't sleep or eat. It was at its worst when I had the cage on. It was a constant sharp, strong ache and I got jolting pains when I moved. They gave me morphine sometimes which helped.
'I had to turn the screws every night. I always dreaded it but knew it had to be done. My parents were great. They wouldn't let me feel sorry for myself.'
With the help of crutches, he has played golf since the age of three and has a handicap of ten.
And despite missing nearly two years of school in total while recovering at home, Michael won a place at Aston University, Birmingham, where he is due to start study business and politics in September.
Mrs Gays said: 'When he was a little-boy we wanted him to be proud of what he had faced so bravely and rightly so. We think he has been an inspiration to lots of other kids.'
Michael, who has a brother Alexander, 11, received a Child of Achievement Award from former prime minister John Major in 1998.
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