A SCHOOLBOY with shortened arms and only one complete leg has finally met Ali Abbas after raising more than £4,000 for the injured Iraqi boy.

Romanian Cornel Hrisca-Munn was so moved by the plight of Ali - who lost his arms during the Gulf conflict - that he raised £4,050 by swimming 1,000m in Lower Wick Swimming Pool in just 45 minutes back in June.

It brought him to the attention of the BBC's Inside Out programme-makers, who have turned his remarkable story into a documentary, to be shown on television tonight.

Last week, 11-year-old Cornel finally met Ali in London, and was amazed at how well the 12-year-old was recovering.

"I was surprised, at first, seeing him because he was much better than I had imagined," said Cornel, who was brought up in Whittington, Worcester.

"A few months ago he was dying, and now he was running around the garden playing football."

When they met last Wednesday, Ali was not only grateful for the money raised but for the gift of the Manchester United top Cornel had brought for him, as both are fans of the team.

"I believe that I had done something good for him and something good happened for me," said the Blessed Edward Oldcorne pupil.

The "something good" came in the form of an expenses-paid trip to his home country of Romania.

After Cornel's swimming fund-raiser the makers of the BBC current affairs programme Inside Out asked to make a documentary including a trip back home.

Because he was born disabled and his mum Juliana Hrisca suffered a nervous breakdown, Cornel was taken away to an orphanage in the city of Suceava.

Had he not been adopted by Doreen Munn, who was working in the country with the charity Romania Concern at the time, and her husband Ken, Cornel would have ended up in a huge state orphanage in Siret.

It was a visit to this orphanage, now closed, that formed part of the trip.

When it was open, the orphanage housed 1,800 children with and without disabilities. When they reached the age of 18 they ended up on the street or in other care homes.

"You wouldn't keep animals in those conditions," said Cornel.

"There was nowhere to go outside and play."

Cornel was 16 months old when he was adopted, and knows if that had not happened he would not have stood a chance at ever having a real life.

"He's got a very good brain and is in the top sets for maths and English at school," said Mrs Munn.

"He would never have gone to school if he had stayed there."

Cornel also met with his biological family in the town of Campulung Moldovenesc in northern Romania.

This was his fifth visit and his parents have been to this country to see him.

"We were always very keen that Cornel should be in contact with his parents," said Mrs Munn.

As for Cornel, he is grateful that he has two sets of loving parents.

Cornel's story will be screened tonight, on BBC1, at 7.30pm.