A family of a seriously ill child are celebrating after thousands of pounds were donated so he can communicate with his new baby brother.

Louie Bull will be three-years-old in March but due to a rare genetic muscle wasting condition he is unable to talk, walk and cannot move very much on his own.

He is unable to interact with baby Charlie who does not have the rare genetic muscle wasting condition that means his big brother has to be monitored 24 hours-a-day to make sure he is breathing properly.

Only a handful of youngsters in the UK are known to have the rare and life limiting condition, Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Respiratory Distress (SMARD), and children with the condition do not often live beyond 13 months.

Louie will be on ventilation for the rest of his life.

He also has scoliosis, deformed hands and feet and doctors say he will eventually end up paralysed.

His mum Natalie McDougall, of Hilary Avenue, Mitcham, is happy to be able to order a Tobii Eye Gaze Viewer machine which tracks the youngster’s eye movement to play games and allow him to communicate.

VIDEO: Parents of seriously ill child hope to buy special machine so he can communicate with baby brother

It costs £7,000.

But the fundraising does not end there, as the family now hope to raise more money to pay for a private speech and language therapist for the youngster to reach his full potential with it and hopefully eventually learn to talk through it.

Miss McDougall said: "We are very happy about getting to the total and grateful to everyone that donated.

"We never expected to get to the total so quickly; we thought it would be months, maybe the end of the year."

The family should receive the equipment in the next few weeks.

Last year they raised about £2,000 to take Louie to Disneyland in Paris but he was too ill to go, so they have put the money aside and hope to travel there this year instead.

To donate to the cause, visit www.gofundme.com/louiesvoice