Bath's inspirational Harmonie-Rose finally holds mum's hand

  • Watch Robert Murphy's full report


Meningitis survivor Harmonie-Rose Allen has just been given her first bionic arm.

The seven-year-old from Bath lost both arms and legs after contracting the deadly bug when she was ten months old.

She already has prosthetic legs. But this is the first time she has had an arm. And one of her first jobs was to paint her new nails.

"It feels, a bit weird, a bit loose a bit heavy, but I'll get used to it," she said.

Harmonie's bionic arm features fingers which she can move using the muscles in her upper arm.

It means she can hold her mum's hand for the first time since she was a baby.

"It's a learning process, these muscles have never been used," said Freya Hall, Harmonie's mum.

She added: "She can open a door and walk through with the hand. For us it's everyday things that we take for granted that we don't realise that we do without thinking. Harmonie will learn to do that with the hand.

Harmonie's new arm Credit: 08032021_HARMONIE_ITV

"It was, at the start, a guessing game about whether she was going to be able to use an electronic hand. So the day that we went in and they attached the electrodes to the arm and it worked, we cried. When you're so anxious for something to work - and it works - you're overwhelmed."

Despite being given a 10% chance of survival, Harmonie now attends school and has learnt to run on prosthetic legs.

During the first lockdown - after the cancellation of the London Marathon - she raised £76,000 through a number of sponsored feats: running 26 times 2.6 metres without prosthetic legs, jumping on a trampoline 26 times and performing 26 cartwheels.


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