Watch moment little girl born without bones in her legs takes first steps on prosthetic limbs

Posie-Aurora Sadler-Smith, one, was diagnosed with limb problems during her 20 week scan, but medics didn't know she had fibular hemimelia until she was born.

The disability - where part or all of the fibula is missing - usually only impacts one leg, but Posie was missing nearly all the bones from both her lower limbs.

The little fighter defied the odds to learn to crawl, using all her strength in her upper body to get around, and even haul herself on to the sofa for a cuddle with dog Seuss.

But her parents and doctors were faced with the agonising decision to amputate her limbs in order to give her a fighting chance at walking upright.

And just after her first birthday she had her left leg amputated at the ankle, and was later fitted with prosthetic limbs - in her favourite shade of pink.

That day she bravely stood, pulling herself up on the sofa, with her dad holding her hands as she took her first tentative tiny steps.

Her right leg - which has no bones below the thigh - currently fits inside the rigid false limb, until her family and doctors decide if it too should be amputated because the knee is so unstable.

Parents Jodie Weeder, 26, and partner Dominic Sadler-Smith, 29, said they "miss her perfect little toes" but are in awe of their daughter's fight and strength.

Jodie from Sudbury, Suffolk, said: "When they strapped them on at the fitting it was like she suddenly wasn’t a baby anymore. She went suddenly from this little dinky girl to such a tall toddler.

“We never thought we would see her stand up. It was amazing. Prosthetics take a lot of getting used to, but It was amazing to see her stand up for the first time.

"She can't stand on her own with them yet because the right one needs to be altered, so we have to hold her or she holds the furniture. She’s incredible. Her upper body strength is amazing - she’s like a little Hulk.

“She falls if she lets go, but she won’t give up. She just gets up again. She’ll just try and try."

Jodie, who has a cleaning business, and businessman Dominic, didn’t know whether their little girl would ever walk when they found she had a chromosomal condition at 20 weeks pregnant.

“We could have had a termination, but we weren’t giving up on her,” Jodie said. "We just focussed on getting her here and thought: 'we’ll face whatever we face’."

At birth she was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia.

She had no right knee or bones below it, and no left ankle with only one mishaped bone in that leg.

Around one-in-fifty-thousand little ones have the bone condition, but it’s much more rare for both legs to be affected.

She had to wear a brace to reposition her hips for three months.

Determined Posie developed a speedy crawl at six months, and had her left foot amputated on July 3. Her right one remains, but is shorter and missing toes.

Emotional parents Jodie and Dominic watched as their only child stood for the first time, when she got her first prosthetic legs on September 7.

Her right knee is so unstable she can't stand on her own yet, so doctors will help the family decide whether it would help Posie to amputate the right leg at her knee in October, to help her prosthetics fit better.

Jodie said: “Prosthetics take a lot of adjustment and getting used to: you don’t just pop them on for the first time and walk. As long as you've got the right support around you and people who love you are backing you you can do anything.

“There will always be hurdles out there in anyone’s life: you’ve just got to overcome them.”

The family will be walking 100 miles in two months, over weekends, with Posie in the pram, to raise money for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, where she was helped.