SEVERELY disabled Ashton Conway strode out to thank his school for the care and support it gave him during his time there.

The Sale boy walked around Sale Water Park in just under an hour - and raised £1,000 for Pictor Academy in Timperley, which he left in July.

The 11-year-old can’t speak but, thanks to his teachers, he signs energetically.

His dedicated mum, Kirsty Howarth, and grandmother, Lorraine Humphreys, got him off a feeding tube just three years ago. He now eats normally.

Lorraine, 56, said: “We wanted to show our appreciation. The school didn’t know anything about it.”

Ashton even collected from staff and diners at the Boathouse restaurant at the water park Lorraine said: “ Kirsty was 18 and 20 weeks pregnant when they told her Ashton had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia.”

This meant a hole in his diaphragm caused his intestines to be pushed up into his chest cavity.

Doctors at Kings College Hospital, London, wanted to operate in the womb but, after local advice, the family decided against it.

Ashton was born at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, on February 21, 2005, and immediately a team of doctors came to pull down his intestines and other organs and cover the hole with a pigskin patch.

Then he caught pneumonia and was transferred to Leicester Royal Infirmary for treatment. They worked on him for three days and saved his life.

When it happened again, St Mary’s treated him.

After four months in an incubator doctors discovered he also had a syndrome which caused learning difficulties.

“It is very rare. That is why he has tiny hands and feet and low set ears,” said Lorraine.

“He makes friends with everyone and has a great sense of humour.”

In September, Ashton starts at the new Brentwood secondary school at Cherry Manor in Sale.

* To donate, write a cheque to Pictor Academy and send it c/o Grove Lane, Altrincham, WA15 6PH.