A MUSIC store has been left overwhelmed after an auctioned guitar signed by Paul Weller raised more than £2,000 towards a life-changing operation for a Blackburn schoolboy.

Reidy’s Music in Blackburn donated the Epiphone Casino guitar to raise funds for the operation for eight-year-old old Samuel Hosker, who has cerebral palsy, and his ongoing care.

Samuel’s family have already raised £44,000 towards the £30,00 operation, which is unavailable on the NHS and will not be wheelchair bound.

Samuel will have the spinal dorsal rhizotomy surgery in September at at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, and the remaining funds will go towards giving him the best physiotherapy and after-care possible.

And after the guitar fetched £2,163.50 on eBay Reidy’s marketing manager Dale Gardner, who waited outside King George’s Hall, Blackburn, for four hours to get the signature from the former Jam frontman, said all the effort was worth it.

Mr Gardner said: “It’s a good figure to raise. It started off a bit slowly but thankfully it kept going up and exceeded our expectations.

“Every little helps. He has got the £30,000 for the operation but this is going to help immeasurably with all the other things he will need to improve his quality of life.

“The first thing was to raise some money for Sam but if the guitar is going to someone who loved Paul Weller that would be great.”

Following surgery, Samuel, a pupil at St Peter’s RC Primary School, will have to undergo two years of intensive physiotherapy.

As well as his signature, Weller has written One Love in silver on the guitar.