Alfie Phillips has become the first person in the UK to have a leg lengthening procedure
Alfie Phillips at Alder Hey(Image: PA)
A nine-year-old boy who is the first patient in the UK to have pioneering surgery to make him taller has said he can now ‘tower over’ his friends.
Alfie Phillips, from Northampton, has a rare condition which affects fewer than one in 40,000 births and caused his right leg to not develop properly, leaving it more than an inch shorter than his left. In a UK first, surgeons implanted a lengthening nail on the surface of his right thigh bone, which has helped him gain 3cm.
Before seeing specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, his only treatment option for fibular hemimelia was to have an external frame fixed to his bone with pins or wires, which carries a risk of pain, infection and scarring.
Instead, experts installed a lengthening nail on the surface of Alfie’s thigh bone. This was then slowly pulled apart by a special magnet, used three times a day for a month, with the body creating new bone tissue to fill the gap.
Procedures using lengthening nails – fitted inside the bone – were not previously available to younger children due to risk of damage.
Alfie Phillips at his home near Northampton(Image: PA)
Almost a year on from his operation in March 2025, Alfie, said: “The main thing I enjoy is obviously being first in the UK to have the operation, and mainly being taller than my friends, which is nice. I can just tower over them now.” He added: “I like doing basketball a lot.”
Before the procedure, Alfie said some of his peers were ‘confused’ that he was shorter than them, despite being older, and would ask why he was different.
“They did say that I ran a bit different, and I couldn’t skip,” he said. “I was around five and six when it started to get a bit annoying. If they ever wanted a conversation, other than my friends, it was always going to be about my condition.
“When I was obviously a lot younger, I didn’t think it was any different, because I grew up with it.”
About the procedure, Alfie said: “I was very excited, but also kind of scared at the same time, because obviously, it’s an operation.”
Alfie’s mum Laura Ducker, 34, told PA that her son was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia within six months of being born. His father, Scot Phillips, 40, initially raised concerns when he noticed his son only had three toes on one foot. However, Alfie met all his milestones as a baby as expected.
Alfie Phillips before his operation.(Image: PA)
Ms Ducker, an NHS midwife, said: “He started walking at about 14 to 15 months, so it really didn’t affect him massively when he was little, and then the leg difference wasn’t obvious. But as he got older, that leg difference became a lot more significant.”
As he grew, Alfie was given a shoe raise on special orthotic boots to balance out the length of his legs. While Ms Ducker said her son has ‘never really had significant problems’ there was a risk of the difference in length causing problems with Alfie’s hips and joints.
Ms Ducker said she heard of Nick Peterson, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Alder Hey, from a fibular hemimelia support group on Facebook.
“I went to the GP, and I asked to be referred to him, just for another opinion, because I just wanted somebody that knew what they were talking about,” she said.
The Alder Hey limb reconstruction team(Image: PA)
Mr Peterson described Alfie’s recovery as ‘remarkable’, adding: “We’ve got really skilled physiotherapists and specialist nurses, as well as my consultant colleagues, and that’s given us a real understanding of how patients behave with these lengthening procedures.
“What had amazed the whole team, given the context of that experience of decades, is that Alfie, after about seven days, his pain score went down to zero out of 10, which is pretty much unheard of.
“He didn’t require anything other than the occasional paracetamol after a few days, and that was it. That is extremely unusual. So his recovery was remarkably quick and really, really impressive.”
