Edward Kennedy uses crutches, swaggering from one leg to the next, as he walks into St Vincent's Private Hospital physiotherapy room in Melbourne for his second session since surgery to correct a rare bone disorder.

He has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, more commonly known as dwarfism, which has caused deformities in his knees and forced him to walk with a wobble.

"As he grew his deformities would have become worse and it would have found it almost impossible for him to walk," his orthopaedic surgeon Leo Donnan says.

Edward was one of the first children identified by No Roads who needed greater assistance. ( Supplied: No Roads - Health )

After hearing about the PNG's stretched health system and facilities, a trekking company organised trips along the Kokoda Trail with Australian clinicians.

A team of about 10 people, about four times a year, treat locals over eight days across the Pacific nation, for a range of illnesses such as malaria and tuberculosis, and musculoskeletal conditions.

"We have three golden rules we have when we go over there, and the first golden rule is that we teach and mentor and coach at every opportunity so what we are trying to do is increase the capacity on the ground," No Roads - Health program manager Stewart Kreltszheim says.

"The second one is that we work with the medications the people on the ground have, so we are not coming in with short-term solutions.

"And the third is that we treat under the regulations of the country we work in."

They met Edward in 2014 in the remote village of Buna in Papua New Guinea's Oro province.

The doctors raised the urgency of his condition, so the organisation teamed up with Children First Foundation to bring him and a group of other children from PNG to Australia for surgery.

"The only tertiary hospital in Papua New Guinea in a country of seven million people is in Port Moresby and it has no paediatric orthopaedic capacity to the extent that Edward needed," Mr Kreltszheim says.

Australian medical professionals donate time

Surgeons and physios in Melbourne donate their time to help children from across the Asia Pacific. ( ABC News: Stephanie Boltje )

The 10-year-old is one of about 20 children each year from across Asia and the Pacific that Children First Foundation helps bring to Australia for life-changing and life-saving treatments.

"We have got the capacity to outreach into these remote areas and do the work on the ground, but the Children First Foundation has the capacity to have the network in Australia, access to the doctors and the facilities and it just works really well," Mr Kreltszheim says.

But it was not as simple as boarding a plane; it took a year to organise everything, from a birth certificate to an Australia visa.

When the time came for treatment, Edward's mother fell ill and that meant he had to travel alone to Australia where he would be without family for months.

"The mother and father of Edward and the local community had no words to say how they felt, they were just in so much gratitude," Mr Kreltszheim says.

Edward, 10, hopes one day to be a soccer player. ( ABC News: Stephanie Boltje )

Edward has had two surgeries in Melbourne to correct what is known as "windswept knees"; one leg moves inward and the other outward.

"There is technical information that is not available in places like Papua New Guinea and they don't have the infrastructure to monitor these kids and get these implants in the correct places," Associate Professor Donnan says.

Edward uses few words to describe his experience in Melbourne, but dreams of one day running "very fast" like Usain Bolt and becoming a soccer player.

He practises the sport with his newly-found friends from across the region at the "Retreat" in Victoria's suburb of Kilmore, a homestead for round-the-clock care.

Edward shows off his strength. ( ABC News: Stephanie Boltje )

Edward says his legs feel like they always have, but the medical team behind his recovery says he has gone ahead in "leaps and bounds" since his first surgery in 2015.

"We have used a range of guided growth techniques so he can correct his own deformities as he grows," says Associate Professor Donnan, who is one of a group of medical professionals in Australia who donate their time.

Edward has had implants inserted and will be monitored via photographs in PNG to determine when they should be removed.

"It's a small operation, a bit like having braces on your teeth in lots of ways, and we can just direct his growth in the right way," Associate Professor Donnan says.

Associate Professor Donnan has been donating his time for about 15 years, from complex reconstructions for children who have severe deformities to relatively straightforward surgeries like Edward's.

"Bascially we get schooled up in this stuff … I went through when tertiary education was free, we get trained in the hospital system and we are in a very privileged position and it is one way of giving back," he says.

"They are fabulous kids to look after, they are motivated, they are incredibly grateful and you can do it; we've got the opportunity, they don't."

Going from strength to strength

Edward has travelled to Melbourne twice in two years for surgery. ( ABC News: Stephanie Boltje )

In Edward's physio session, his toothy smile beams from ear to ear as he jokes around with the physios, picks up dumbbell weights and spins on their rotating stool.

"He has made remarkable recovery," says Pauline MacLeod, who is one of the physios who give up their lunch breaks to treat the children.

"For a little boy of 10 to stay in a wheelchair for six weeks was the hardest thing for him, but now he has been given the all-clear he hops, skips and jumps really to progress.

"He has gone from being anxious [about] not using a wheelchair last Wednesday to not wanting to see his crutches this week and going full force ahead."

And Edward's transformation, like the other children who come to Australia for medical treatment, has not just been physical.

"He is close to walking and personality-wise he has totally changed," Retreat manager Pat Weldon says.

"He's a lot happier; he was very sullen when we first got him last year, probably nervous of course and the more he is getting used to us, the happier he is.

"There is a great buzz about each child and there is a big team behind each child and then at the end of all of this the kids go home happy and healthy and they are fixed."

Edward is expected to stay in Melbourne until January 2017 and will need more surgery in the coming years.

"We have seen this before where when all the surgeries are finished he'll walk normally and you probably wouldn't know the difference if you did not know his story," Mr Weldon says.

Mr Kreltszheim adds: "Each time he comes to Australia, I presume and hope that the end result will be that he will be a healthy little boy, leading a healthy normal lifestyle playing soccer or footy or rugby and running around at school and he is going to grow into a strong adult male who can contribute to his community."