REUBEN Davies has faced an uphill challenge all his life, but a debilitating spinal condition hasn't stopped him from helping to raise over £5,000 to help raise awareness.

The 11-year-old, from Llandrindod Wells, was diagnosed with scoliosis aged two - scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side and can resemble an 'S' or a question mark shape rather than a straight line.

Reuben suffers with congenital scoliosis, meaning there are three curves in his spine, while he is also missing two ribs but has extra vertebrae.

Despite the fact that the football mad lad has to live a slightly different life to other sport crazy kids his age, with two titanium rods holding his shoulder blades and the base of his spine together, you wouldn't notice - he is positive and happy-go-lucky and has embraced his disability rather than hide away from it, raising more than £5,000 over the last five years in order to help people like himself get better and highlight awareness of scoliosis.

Fundraising schemes so far have included collecting money from non-uniform days and a school sports themed day at Trefonnen Primary School, in Llandrindod, as well as a potato growing 'spudaganza' scheme that raised over £1,000, while Reuben's mum Tracey also raised a similar amount when she ran the Cardiff Half Marathon with a friend.

However, as Reuben graduates to Llandrindod High School, where he starts after the summer holidays, so too have his lofty fundraising ambitions developed, and on Sunday, August 31, the plucky youngster will face his biggest challenge yet - climbing Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons.

Read the rest of brave Reuben's story in this week's B&R