At the end of March, I will aim to complete a 25 metre Sponsored Scoot on my trike. I know it isn’t a huge distance but I only have teeny tiny legs and it will be a big challenge for me.

I am doing this because I am fundraising for one of my best friends, George. I call him my little buddy but he is in fact five days older than me, so I guess he is my big buddy!

When George was born, he was very, very seriously poorly. His mummy and daddy’s world was turned upside down when he was taken away for checks at his birth and never came back. His life became a world of incubators, tubes and machines. He was five days old before he even got to cuddle his mummy.

George was born with no bottom hole and with a condition called Tracheo-Oesophageal Fistula (TOF) and Oesophageal Atresia; rare congenital conditions of the oesophagus (food pipe) and/or trachea (airway) that affect one in every 3,500 babies.

At just 13 hours old, he underwent his first operation and didn’t go home until he was almost a month old. George is now 18 months old and has had 23 operations. He has spent many weeks and months in Paediatric Intensive Care ICU and various wards at Queen’s Medical Centre and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

His operations include having a stoma created, known as his ‘tum bum’; that very same stoma reversed and a real bottom created; his oesophagus stretched numerous times; a tracheostomy fitted and recently, the tracheostomy removed. He’s also had a number of viruses and infections including bronchiolitis and parainfluenza and several times, we feared George might not survive.

George’s mummy and daddy were told he wouldn’t ever talk and until the tracheostomy was reversed, he couldn’t make a sound, not even cry like all the babies I know. Now we can babble and shout random noises at each other.

Quite simply, George is a miracle. He is super strong and super brave and I am so proud to be his friend.

George’s family are now trying to raise £25,000 to fund a parent’s education and training room at the QMC; a nice, warm, welcoming environment for parents of babies with a variety of complex issues to learn how to care for their baby. A room which currently doesn’t exist and is very much needed.

George is known to friends and family as Super George, and the room is to be named after him. It will be a lasting legacy at the hospital.

Thank you so much, lots of love, Zach xx

More information about Super George’s Army Fundraising Appeal is available at Justgiving.com/teams/SuperGeorgeArmy. On Facebook you can visit Super George’s Army Fundraising Appeal page, and on Twitter, follow @SuperGeorgeArmy.