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Vanya Pastukhov was born with a disability and brought up in a Moscow orphanage. The system wrote him off, but he never gave up hope that one day he would escape the orphanage and find a family to love him.

Vanya Pastukhov was born prematurely in 1990 with cerebral palsy, and at 18 months old was handed over to the state.

However Vanya had the gift of friendship, and it was through his own courage and willpower and the efforts of friends he made that he was able to find a new life for himself.

When Vanya was four years old and living in a Moscow orphanage, Baby House 10, he met an Englishwoman called Sara Philps.

Sara was immediately struck by his spirit. She and her journalist husband Alan campaigned, with others, to get Vanya out of state institutions.

Vanya is now called John Lahutsky, and he lives with his adoptive mother Paula in the United States.

He has co-written his story with Alan Philps in a new book called The Boy from Baby House 10.

John, Alan and Sarah shared the story of his remarkable journey with Outlook's Lucy Ash.