A SALTNEY girl diagnosed with scoliosis aged just seven years old is hoping to help others after life-changing surgery.

Dionne Vickers, 14, can now walk after surgery at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital following earlier treatment at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt (RJAH) Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry.

She has organised, with her mum Lynette Vickers, a charity bingo night to be held at the Saltney Tavern on Tuesday, July 30.

Lynette explained that her daughter wanted to give back to say thank you to the people that supported her on the way to walking again.

She said: “Dionne had her surgery at Alder Hey as the RJAH, in Oswestry, didn’t operate on people under 13, which she was when she had it.

“She can walk now because she has the metal rods in her back but she is undergoing physio.

“Dionne had six weeks off school for the surgery and then all the post-operative treatment and the visits from the district nurses.

“She can walk yes but now she is really tall, because she can stand up straight, and is costing me a fortune because she’s in ladies' clothing.

“Mr Davidson, who works at both Alder Hey and the RJAH, was her surgeon and I can’t thank him enough for giving her the gift of life.

“He told me to ignore anything she said after she came around from her surgery because she would be full of the anaesthetic.

“I was just so happy to see her because she’s my youngest.

“But she said to me ‘no more operations’ and then said ‘tell Mr Davidson – thank you very much’.

“No-one expected her to say that and she was so grateful to that man.”

Lynette added that while she didn’t use Scoliosis Support and Research’s help, she had researched the condition through them.

And she added it was Dionne’s decision to raise funds for them.

She said: “Dionne saw what they did and that they support little children who needed braces or plaster of Paris so she reached out to them.

“She said that she wanted people to know that we are not broken and wanted to raise the funds.

“I will be there from 6.15pm on July 30 with Dionne and we have t-shirts from Scoliosis UK, and we will be supported by friends and our family.”

The night will be backed by a raffle with prizes including tickets to Chester FC, Chester Racecourse and for the Storyhouse’s Open Air Theatre; free entry to Wrexham Waterworld; two tickets to Gulliver’s World and many, many more great prizes.