A determined boy born with just one arm has big dreams of becoming a real-life Iron Man with the help of a high-tech bionic arm.
Mason Palmer, eight, from West Derby, had no interest in stiff, rubbery prosthetic limbs that only covered up his missing left arm. But when he had the chance to try a functional 3D-printed bionic arm, he experienced life with two hands for the very first time.
His dad Alex, 44, said: "Mason is such a character and nothing ever stops him from doing what he wants to do. Because he was born without a left hand, he knows no different. He plays football, he goes to karate, he wants to start playing rugby. Nothing will stop him.
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"But as he's getting older he wants his independence. There are everyday tasks we take for granted, like opening a packet of crisps, tying shoelaces, doing up buttons, holding a book. Little things like that, he's recently begun to say 'I wish I could do that sort of thing'."
Mason, a pupil at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Primary School, was invited to an open day with Open Bionics, a company which develops bionic arms for amputees, at the Pullman hotel in Liverpool last month, where he was given the chance to try out the new 'Hero Arm' technology.
Each limb is custom-built with special sensors to detect muscle movements within the arm, allowing the user to control the hand with ease.
Alex said: "He was so amazed he was able to control the hand just using the muscles in his arm. The look on his face was brilliant; the shock, but also joy. Straight away he said he had to have one and that was it. We knew we had to do whatever we could."
Mason's mum Louise, 44, added: "Mason has never been interested in prosthetics before. The ones provided on the NHS just make him look like he has two hands - they're non-functional, so he's not interested. But the bionic arm is functiona, it does things. It would change so much for him and give him pride in doing things for himself."
Alex and Louise learned of Mason's missing limb long before he was born, when Louise went for a 16-week scan.
She said: "I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. I thought, what was life going to be like for him? I'd never known a person to be born without a limb and didn't know how we were going to cope. But from the moment he was born, Mason was Mason. We do have to adapt, and I do still get nervious. He gets people staring at him, and as a mum that's difficult for me.
"I think for any parent who finds out their child has a disability, there's an element of fear. But he amazes me every day.
"Mason makes a joke out of things. At Halloween he put fake blood on his stump and had his friends hold an axe. He's such a loving little boy and so determined.
"I knew when I saw him control the arm and saw the look on his face, I knew there and then I would do whatever it took to give that to him."
Taking advice from friends, Alex and Louise have set up an online fund-raiser in the hope of raising the £12,500 needed to pay for the Hero Arm - which Mason wants in red and gold, like Iron Man.
Alex said: "Mason has appointment next month to go to Open Bionics head office, and they're going to fully measure him up for his arm. If we can make it to the target before then, we can place the order there and then, which would be brilliant for Mason."
He added: "When Mason was about four, I took him to an indoor play centre and he was playing with a few other kids, and one of the little girls said 'how come you've only got one hand', and he said 'I only need one hand, one hand and a stump'.
"He's quite a confident character, but with some things hes not, like getting ready for P.E. at school. With a functional arm he can do more stuff on his own - things the rest of us take for granted."
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