LITTLE Jayden Leigh has battled the odds to pass a street dancing exam.

The three-year-old, from Bacup, was born with the congenital deformity talipes or 'club foot'.

Both his feet were put into plaster casts at just five days old to manipulate them into the right direction.

And now he has just passed his first street dancing rosette.

Karen Scott-Roe, principal at Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy, sought special dispensation for the toddler to take his exam early.

She said: “Children are supposed to be three when they take the exam, but Jayden was just a few days off his birthday.

“He attends classes with his four-year-old sister Kelsey and he wanted to be able to take the exam with her so we applied to the International Dance Teachers’ Association for permission.

"He passed the exam with flying colours.”

His mum Vicky, 30, of Rose Bank Street, Bacup, said: “When I went for my 20-week scan they identified that he had club foot and when he was born both his feet were like a banana shape, pointing the wrong way, and he had no ankles.

“When he was a baby we used to say Jayden had funky feet, it was a way of coping with it.

"He couldn’t crawl like other children because he had to wear the boots and frame and he would drag his straight legs to move about.

"He was 18 months old before he developed a heel and 20 months before he could walk unaided.”

Now Jayden is just like any other child at Dansworks, performing an assisted handstand, playing air guitar, doing the splits and greeting everyone with a cheeky smile and a giggle.

Full-time mum Vicky said: “His older brother Jack, eight, also attends Dansworks and has been performing in street dancing competitions so Jayden was always copying him.

“Kelsey started lessons at 18 months and Jayden joined her six months ago.

“Karen has been brilliant with him.

"His muscles were wasting away because he was not able to use them for so long but thanks to the dance routines, and learning different positions, he has been able to stretch his ligaments and the hospital is amazed at how well he is doing.

“They were planning for him to have an operation on his tendons, but it looks like that now won’t need to take place.

“It has been a big thing for him to come dancing. It has brought him out of himself, made him more flexible, really improved his confidence and his social skills.”

Jayden starts at Bacup Nursery School in September. He is still under the consultant at Manchester Children’s Hospital and he will be wearing his boots and braces overnight for 12 hours each day until he is five.

His sister Kelsey was also born with club foot, but because her condition was less severe than Jayden’s it could be rectified by physiotherapy. Club foot affects one in 1,000 births.

Vicky added: “It is just amazing to see him now in the dance classes.

"I am very proud of all my children and Jayden is my little star.”

To find out more about Dansworks visit the website below or call 01706 559671.