CAN YOU HELP? Fundraising battle for youngster's op.

Byline: By ANGELA RAINEY

THE MOTHER of a schoolboy born without ears is appealing for help to fund a reconstructive operation.

When he was first born Tommy Leech, nine, baffled doctors as to why he had no outer ears or canals yet the inner parts were perfectly formed.

Doctors compared his hearing to "listening to a conversation under water".

So in 2003, to help aid his communication, Tommy underwent a bone-anchored hearing aid operation where a metal plate was fixed to his skull and a hearing device clipped to the outside of his head.

Due to his love of football and cross-country running, the aid had to be replaced last year.

But now Tommy, a Year Five pupil at Hemlington Hall School, has the chance to have a pair of permanent ears reconstructed but it will cost pounds 50,000.

"We had already been to Great Ormond Street Hospital who said they could reconstruct his ears but not open his ear canals because it would disfigure his face," said mum Lisa, 32.

"So instead we are going for our first consultation at the Prosper Hospital in Recklinghausen on Monday.

"A professor there is meant to be a real wizard and has performed the operation several times and he will be opening the ear canals as well. But he needs to see that we have the funds to go ahead."

In a bid to raise the cash Lisa, 32, has put her three bedroom bungalow on Whithorn Grove, Hemlington, up for sale.

"There's only Tommy and I so we don't need the space - I'd rather the equitywas in the bank for his operation and that way if it ends up costing more I will have access to some cash," she said.

Lisa, who was widowed in 1999 when soldier husband Carl, then 25, was killed in a car accident, has also enlisted the help of TFM charity Make a Child Smile.

And her colleagues at Barclays in Stockton, where she hasworked for nine years in the business department, are going to hold a dress-down, day raffle and lock managers in a cell for a day at Billingham police station.

If the target is reached, Tommy could undergo the first of six operations over three years in April.

Surgeons will remove a chest rib, sculpt an ear from it and fuse it to his head.

Middlesbrough Futsal Club will be doing its bit by staging its biggest ever match to help boost funds and to celebrate the club's first birthday.

Members of the public are invited to see Middlesbrough v Ipswich Wolves at Teesside University on February 23 at 7pm. The Under-16s will be kicking off at 5pm with a host of fundraising events organised for the event.

Tickets are free available by emailing [e-mail] For more information or to donate see www.makeachildsmile.co.uk/tommy-leechfund

CAPTION(S):

PLEA: Tommy with his mum Lisa, left, and when he was a baby, above. How we first told Tommy's story when he was a baby, inset Picture left by PETER REIMANN