IN less than a year Warrington Guardian readers have helped to raise more than £100,000 for Ethan Connolly and the money is making more of a difference to his family than they could have hoped.

"It has been amazing, we cannot believe that in less than a year we have raised that amount of money," said Ethan's mum, Karen Bell.

"We're hoping that once we know how much Ethan needs we can get registered and turn the rest into a charity for other kids with the same condition," she said.

Ethan, aged three, has lymphangioma, a rare disorder that creates cysts in soft tissue.

"When he was born it was the first case they had seen at Alder Hey for 20 years," said dad, Kevin.

Ethan's cysts block his throat which means he needs a tracheotomy to breathe. He also has cysts behind one eye and on his jaw, and it is these that are next to be operated on.

Ethan, his mum, Karen, and his dad Kevin are going to New York on Sunday so Ethan can have an operation on his jaw, his tongue and his airway.

The surgeon there, Dr Warner, has operated on Ethan before. Last July he went to Berlin for an operation to remove some of the cysts on his jaw.

This time the surgeon will also map the nerves in Ethan's face so that he can take more of the cysts away without disturbing nerves.

"I think not having the language barrier like we did in Berlin will help. I think that scared him a lot last time," said Karen.

"He didn't know what people were saying to him - so even though they were being comforting to him he was frightened," she said.

He had nightmares after his Berlin operation, said Karen, so one of her friends bought him a dream catcher and he would put his bad dreams in there.

The NHS won't pay for the operations unless the cysts begin to bleed, but Karen and Kevin were worried that Ethan would develop a complex about his appearance and decided to raise the money themselves.

The family hope that eventually Ethan's cysts will stop re-growing after being removed and his tracheotomy can come out.

But for now there's bigger things on Ethan's mind. It's his fourth birthday in three week's time and his thoughts have turned to what presents he wants.

"A big robot dragon!" he shouts, throwing an inflatable elephant around the living room and diving across the floor.

joanna.lean@guardiangrp.co.uk