A seven-year-old boy from Wimbledon will travel to America for new ground-breaking treatment which will involve a transfusion of his brother's cord blood stem cells to repair damage to his brain and hopefully change his quality of life.

Jay Shetty has suffered from a debilitating form of cerebral palsy and autism since he was a baby, meaning he cannot walk, talk or even sit up unaided.

He has now been selected for a pioneering clinical trial at Duke University Medical Centre with Cells4Life.

Now his family will travel to America on March 11 for a week of treatment.

The Food & Drug Authority in America gave permission to Duke University in October 2017 to offer cord blood therapy to children with neurological conditions. The unique properties of stem cells found in the umbilical cord mean for sibling therapy only a partial match is required.

Jay's parents, Shilpa and Raj Shetty, had one wish when storing their second baby Kairav’s stem cells - to change the quality of life for Jay and they say that wish has come true.

His mother hopes that the treatment may one day enable him to walk, run and maybe even hug her for the very first time.

Mrs Shetty, 40, who lives on Inner Park Road with her two sons and husband, said: “We are extremely excited to be part of this revolutionary treatment offered by Dukes, having seen the positive preliminary results it has shown amongst cerebral palsy sufferers.

“Any respite and improvement to Jay’s quality of life would have an enormously beneficial effect on not just him but our whole family life.

“We will definitely see improvements but it will depend on Jay’s body and how he will take it.”

Mr and Mrs Shetty said they have been waiting for this treatment for two and half years, having contacted Duke University in 2015 at the end of Mrs Shetty's pregnancy.

Private therapies alone in London and Poland have cost the couple between £16,000 and £20,000 a year, with most of the money being funded by themselves. Fundraising which they started two years ago has managed to raise a further £26,000.

Cerebral palsy affects 1 in 400 children and over 600,000 people in the UK are living with autism.

Claudia Rees, Operations Director at Cells4Life said: “This is cutting-edge treatment considered to be a cornerstone of a relatively new area of science known as regenerative medicine."

“The results of this trial will be very exciting and such work would not have been possible without the parents who chose to bank their children’s precious cord blood at birth and support innovative treatments.”