Nine-year-old Josh Cathcart, of Meadowfield, was born missing the lower half of his right arm and found himself on the receiving end of cruel taunts from vicious bullies. However, thanks to the generosity of kind-hearted people who have donated to the family’s fund-raising efforts, including a relative from as far away as Australia, the youngster is ready for his robotic replacement next month.

For dad James, seeing how excited Josh is makes everything worthwhile.

“It’s great just to see him smile and be so happy,” he said. “He’s not worrying about the summer holidays, he’s just wanting them to be finished so he can get his arm! He’d have it now if he could.

“There’s a big smile on his face all the time and he’s not how he was four or five months ago, he’s a lot happier. It’s brilliant as a parent. It makes us feel better too.” In April the Press told you how Josh, who plays football for Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts, visited a company called Touch Bionics to take a muscle sensory test to see if he’d be able to use a bionic arm. Before long, he had managed to throw and catch a ball and his family were thrilled at the “life-changing” opportunity.

However, with a price tag in the region of £30-40,000, the revolutionary technology is expensive and it wasn’t until Josh’s uncle, who lives in Australia, offered to front the cost that the dream became a reality.

“We’ve got to thank Josh’s uncle, Bill McCartney,” said James. “If it wasn’t for him, Josh wouldn’t have had the hand until next year or the year after.

“We’ve paid the deposit and set a date. He’s getting it the first week the kids go back to school. He’ll have a week’s intensive course to know what to do and he’s pretty excited. Then he’ll go back the second week with his new arm.” The family still face a lot of fund-raising ahead of them in the coming years, as Josh will eventually grow too big for the first bionic hand and will need a larger one when he is older.

“We need to keep the ball rolling to get the second one paid for,” said James. “They’ve brought out an extra-small hand which he’ll get. He’ll be one of the first in the world to have that. They used to do just two sizes, small and large, and the small one was still a bit too big for him just now.” Thanks to the generosity of Josh’s uncle, the rest of the money raised will now go towards the second hand for when he is older and the family has already planned and organised plenty of events to help raise money, from a 16-team football tournament to selling around 500 ‘Josh’s Bionic Arm’ wristbands.

“We’ve also got a team for Tough Mudder called Josh’s Bionic Army!” added James.

Coming up this weekend is a race night in Rosyth, with an exciting raffle and top-class prizes to be won, including cash, BTCC tickets for Knockhill, spa vouchers, whisky, meal vouchers and much more.

“We’ve got around 46 raffle prizes and people are still donating,” said James. “It’s amazing the response we got back from it.

“The raffle tickets are £5 and it’s well worth it as a lot of the raffle prizes are over £100 and the money is going to a good cause.” The race night is taking place from 7pm on Saturday 11th July at the Civil Service Club in Rosyth. For more information, contact Craig Roxburgh on 07866 561 999.

To help raise money for Josh’s bionic arm, visit http www.gofundme.com/sr9hb9h8