A GROUP of businessmen have donated £3,500 to help a little boy undergo a life-changing operation.

Elliot Gower, aged six, from Southbourne has cerebral palsy and severe haemophilia A.

His family has launched Operation Elliot to raise the £66,000 necessary to to pay for surgery.

Elliot is undergoing ‘pre-hab’ for a selective dorsal rhizotomy at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

The huge spinal procedure would give him much more freedom of movement.

The BC Club, a group of businessmen from the Bournemouth, Poole and Southampton areas, who get together to enjoy themselves and raise money for charity, came to Elliot’s aid.

Their first get-together of 2014 raised £3,500 through donations, games and fines.

Another £875 is coming from Gift Aid.

The Print Room in Bournemouth, where the event was held, also contributed to the cause.

Elliot lives in Southbourne, Bournemouth, with his parents, Morwenna and James, and siblings Lucas and Jocelyn.

Elliot’s dad James said: “We want to say an enormous thank you to the BC Club for the donation.

“We’ve been supported by the whole community and we couldn’t have got where we are without them.”

Steve Wells, from DWP Housing Partnership, who is one of the club’s founders, said: “We hold about four events a year and pick a charity or cause to support.

“When we heard about Elliot we all wanted to help and were pleased we could give him some money towards the target.

“We had 35 members at the event which was our highest number yet.”

Last year the BC Club raised over £30,000 for charity.

To donate to Operation Elliot, visit justgiving.com/operationelliot