In November 2012, my wife and I were delighted to welcome our first child, Thomas, into the world. Shortly after his birth doctors were concerned with Thomas's blood pressure and he was referred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital for further investigation. Needless to say, this was the most stressful time of our lives as the pregnancy had highlighted no medical issues whatsoever.

Some three days after his birth, Thomas was diagnosed with a narrowing of the aorta which was preventing blood getting to his lower body. This required immediate and emergency open heart surgery. To think a baby aged 3 days could withstand an 8 hour open heart operation was too much to make sense of. It is purely thanks to the expertise and skill of the entire team at Alder Hey that Thomas survived.

Whilst Thomas still has ongoing issues, he is a healthy and delightfully happy boy who we are blessed to have in our lives. 

It's about time I gave something back. Just a little bit to show how much we are indebted to this phenomenal organisation. To that end, my dad and I are off to India to undertake a 70km trek via Delhi to the foothills of the Himalayas. We'll be camping, taking night sleeper trains and ultimately trekking up to 10,000ft. All with the aim of raising money for this life saving and life changing hospital.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.