Although he was born with a rare spinal cord disability that restricts his movement from the waist down, this 11-year-old has lived his life in anything but a restricted fashion.

He is an enthusiastic participant in many wheelchair sports and his ultimate dream is to, one day, compete in the Paralympics.

The Wingham boy is now closer than ever to that goal.

Christmas came early for Luke this month when he was given a new hand-cycle, which is a wheelchair racing bicycle.

Luke, a year five Wingham Brush Public School student, was given the new bike – worth about $5000 – after the Santas and elves at the Wingham Anglican Church got together to raise the money for the piece of equipment.

The bike was presented to Luke earlier this month at the New South Wales Junior Wheelies Christmas camp at Narrabeen, which he attended with his pop Ron Hinshelwood.

Throughout the sporting weekend, Luke had been burning around in the seven-speed Rocket hand-cycle, getting the hang of how it works.

Then came the time for Ron to surprise Luke.

“‘How’d you like to take that home with us?’ I asked him,” Ron said.

“He said ‘yeah’ but I could tell he didn’t really believe me.

“Only when we put the wheelchair into the back of the car did it start to sink in.”

Now back home in Wingham, Luke has been taking every opportunity to take his new bike out for a spin, often riding to his nan and pop’s place and even dropping in on one of his school teachers to show it off.

Luke’s brother Michael knows this bike means a lot to his younger sibling.

“Now he can ride around with the rest of us,” Michael said. “It gives him more freedom.”

Luke’s form of spinal cord regression affects only about five people in Australia.

He uses a wheelchair most of the time but he can walk with callipers and does have some sensation in his legs. He has had 10 major operations since birth to combat the disease.

But the disability has never held him back or slowed him down.

“He doesn’t see that he has a disability,” his mother Kim Hinshelwood said.

“Everyone else has a disability.”

Kim has made sure she hasn’t brought him up with any special treatment.

“I’ve treated him as a normal child. If he plays up, he gets punished.

“He still plays cricket, climbs trees . . . He does things that other kids don’t do, or aren’t willing to do.”