Boy becomes first in UK to have surgery to make him taller

A nine-year-old boy has become the first person in the UK to have pioneering surgery to make him taller.

Alfie Phillips has a rare condition called fibular hemimelia, which caused his right leg to not develop properly, leaving it more than an inch shorter than his left.

Thanks to the new treatment by experts at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital he has been able to gain 3cm.

Alfie, from Northampton, said he had been "excited" and scared to be the first to have the procedure, but almost a year on he is now "running around as normal" and enjoyed playing basketball.

Fibular hemimelia is a rare condition affecting fewer than one in 40,000 births.

The new method involved implanting a lengthening nail on the surface of Alfie's right thigh bone, which is slowly pulled over time using magnets.

Although lengthening nails have been fitted inside the bone of adults, the procedure was not previously an option for younger children because of the risk of damaging the growth plates.

"We know that being able to lengthen internally is less painful and a better experience overall," Nick Peterson, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Alder Hey said.

"But before this technique, it wasn't available for children."

Before being referred to Alder Hey in 2024, Alfie's only option to make his leg longer would have been to have an external fixator fitted.

The operation to install the nail was performed on Alfie in March 2025 and he spent less than a week in hospital.

The new method, developed in the US, involved placing a lengthening nail - known as a motorised telescopic nail - on the surface of Alfie's femur, the long bone in the thigh.

To make the limb longer, a magnetic device was placed on Alfie's leg three times a day for a month.

This process helped the nail slowly pull the two bone ends apart - by around 1mm each day - while the body naturally filled the gap with new bone tissue.

He then underwent weekly physiotherapy sessions and reviews by doctors and specialist nurses until the lengthening process had finished, which took around six weeks.

Alfie continued to have physio until the nail was removed from his leg, which was around three to four months after the operation.

"He healed really well," Alfie's mother, Laura Ducker, 34, said. "He coped magnificently. He was keen to go back to school fairly quickly."

"He's running around as normal, if you were to look him you would never know that there had ever been anything happen. He is just incredible."

Although Alfie may need further lengthening treatment on his shin bone in the future, Peterson said his experience for his age has been "vastly superior to what it would have been".

Specialists at Alder Hey measured the difference at 4cm (1.6in) , and projected it would increase to 6cm (2.4in) by the time Alfie was fully grown at around 16.

Peterson described his patient's recovery as "remarkable".

The hospital has since performed the technique on three other children with fibular hemimelia and other specialists centres around the country are preparing to do the same.

Peterson said Alfie's case "paves the way for this technique to replace that old fashioned way of doing things".