A Carshalton mum’s fundraising campaign launched to get her son vital hearing implants before his birthday in June has smashed its £80,000 target.

Little Benjamin Wayne, three, needs cochlear hearing implants after NHS England’s individual funding request rejected proposals in October last year.

But now he will undergo surgery on April 14 after the story of Benji’s Magic Ears received national attention when the family appeared on television programme Good Morning Britain.

In an Instagram post published on March 28, it read: "Only a few short weeks ago we started this journey to try and give Benji the gift of hearing by his fourth birthday in June.

"We had no idea what a whirlwind it would all be! The support has been incredible, we are blown away by the kindness we have been shown.

"So, thanks to amazing family, friends, charity ninjas, and a generous anonymous donor from America who saw our cause in the media and, this being close to his heart, we are ecstatic to announce that we have reached our total! Our little boy is booked in for surgery on April 14!"

It added that, given the money raised has exceeded the original target, the difference of £9,000 will be donated to another cause, 'Ear for Alex', in a bid to fundraise for an ear construction surgery which will allow him to hear through that ear.

Little Benjamin was born with Connexin 26, understood to be a common cause for hearing loss, and despite being fitted with hearing aids at a month old he was ‘not getting sufficient access to sound’.

Sutton Guardian spoke with Joanna Wayne, 31, of Strawberry Lane, at the beginning of the campaign.

The mother-of-three said: “The team [at St Thomas Hearing Implant Centre] appealed by saying, ‘Look this is really urgent’, because there is a small window of time before the age of five where he can develop language and after that it’s kind of basically, that window closes.

“You can’t really learn new language anymore, what you have is what you have and that’s it. They said we need to implant him right now whilst he is young enough to still be able to develop speech because that window is kind of rapidly closing.

“So we can’t wait. Yeah he could be implanted [after turning five] but it’ll mean that he probably won’t ever develop spoken language and we’re not prepared [to let that happen].

“If Ben had these cochlear implants it would completely change his life. And it’s guaranteed to as well. It’s not an experimental thing, it’s not like it might work or it might not, it definitely will work and it definitely will change his life.”