A BOSNIAN family have praised their “extended family” across Dorset for helping their son reach his 21st birthday.

Seventeen years ago a four-year-old Bosnian boy came to Britain for life-changing surgery. Now at the age of 21, he is living a full and happy life thanks to the generous readers of the Dorset Echo.

Stefan Savic was born with a facial cleft, a block of bone in the centre of his face which pushed his eyes far apart, and needed more than £140,000 to pay for life-changing surgery.

Former soldier Wayne Ingram, from Portland, sparked an appeal after he met the youngster while on a tour of duty in the Balkans in 2003.

Wayne organised for Stefan to travel to Weymouth in 2003 and for his first operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Since then, Echo readers continued to support Stefan as he had a further four operations to rebuild his face over the years.

Wayne passed on a message from Stefan and his family in Laktasi, who wanted to say thank you to their extended family in Dorset for helping Stefan reach his 21st birthday. They also wanted to pass on their best wishes to Calvin Stone, who was instrumental in helping Stefan during his visits to the local area.

Wayne, who currently works as a paramedic on a designated Covid-19 helicopter repatriating virus cases from the North Sea, got in touch with the Echo to let us know how Stefan was doing.

He said: “One of my neighbours said it would be nice to hear an update on Stefan and as he turned 21 this year I thought it would be nice for everyone to hear about him.

“I speak to the family all the time still. I speak to them every month, especially through this recent period. They have been asking how my family is and we have been speaking to each other a couple of times a week and are still in contact.

“It’s the people of Weymouth and Dorchester and the community there who have helped fund the operations.

“Unfortunately it’s hard to get pictures of him because they have quite bad internet in Bosnia but he has made a full recovery and he is doing really well.

“He’s now working at the family bar and he’s still playing the accordion in a band and plays it at the bar. He’s actually fantastic, loving life and his girlfriend is beautiful. He’s extremely pleased and extremely grateful.

“It’s incredible, I have managed to see this young boy grow into a man.

“His life would have been short before people helped and his life has been saved.”