FROM pirouettes to pennies - a group of kind-hearted dance students have raised more than £740 in a bid to help a little boy walk unaided.

Three-year-old Santiago Walmsley, who has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, has been accepted at Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) operation, where vertebrae will be removed from his lower spine, and nerves partially cut to reduce tightness in his muscles.

But parents Adriana, 40, and Andy, 46, need to raise £27,000 to pay for the procedure, as well as an additional £15,000 for extensive physiotherapy.

Dancers at Leap Dance with Yolanda in Southbourne, where Santiago's sister Annabella, eight, is a student, stepped up to the challenge, after principal Yolanda Giddings handed out tubes of Smarties.

The youngsters were challenged to eat the sweets, before returning the tubes filled with coins. They also collected change from the audience at the school's recent Summer Showcase at the Regent Centre in Christchurch, while some students held bake sales and sold painted stones in aid of the cause, to raise a total of £746.

Santiago is due to have the operation next month and, while NHS England has announced it will now commission the surgery for around 120 children a year, his family are still waiting to hear if he will be eligible. They have pledged to use the money raised for further, vital physiotherapy and equipment for Santiago if they no longer have to fund the procedure themselves.

Adriana, who works at JP Morgan, said: "We'll need to pay for a private physio, which is approximately £70 per hour and he will need four one-hour sessions a week. One will be NHS, if they have space, but that's just for a few months - he will need physio for life."

A host of fundraising events have been organised by Adriana and Andy's family and friends including an auction, Zumbathon, skydive and a fun day.

:: If you can help Santiago, who is being supported on his journey by the Dorset Children's Foundation, visit justgiving.com/thedcf-Santiago or go to facebook.com/Santiagos-journey-to-walk to find out more.