Hi Thanks for getting here and reading my little story, when i was two weeks old i had to have an operation on my heart at Guy's hospital in London, thanks to an amazing trainee nurse she noticed that after about 10 minutes of being born my lips were turning blue! It was to do with arteries and pipes all a bit mixed up and holes in my heart .After this i was whisked off to Guy's hospital and i dont remember that much about it ! But my parents have told me about the next part,with amazing skill Consultants Dr. Conal Austin and Mr. Anderson worked on my heart which was then, the size of a small walnut it sounds amazing they must have really steady hands and Dad told me they had these amazing glasses that magnify the heart and arteries.

I stayed at Guys for about a week and i was pretty keen to get home my Dad watched me pulling off the oxygen mask he thinks i wanted to go home, well i did but i had an itch on the end of my nose and i wanted to scratch it! i have never told him that so keep it a secret please! 

The day i left hospital my Mum's Dad died and it was two days before Christmas 1999.My Mum and Dad are carefree and my Nanny not so but they decided to take me to the River Thames and watch the Wall of Fire for the Millenium Celebrations aged 4 weeks 2 days i was having a little sleep when it all kicked off but standing on Lambeth Bridge i felt the warmth of the flames.

I now travel up to London once a year especially to go to the Evelina Childrens Hospital where Dr. Miller and his team give me the once over and make me run and jump and all sorts of other measurements. Its good fun and i talk to Dr. Miller about cricket and sailing.Last time i was there i told him about my passion for sailing and that i was hoping to enter some sailing competitions in 2012 and asked what he thought. He was very positive and encouraged me to get stuck in. Well i listened to him and got stuck in.  I travelled to Italy for the RS Tera World Championships a junior dinghy sailing regatta with 10-16 year olds competing. I had five days of racing with some 6.30 am starts i had a couple of set backs but as day three dawned it was looking more possible to win with over 40 other sailors competing it started to become a race between a young South African guy and myself.On the last leg of the last race on the last day i managed to overtake 4 competitors and so beat Georgou by one point.This gave my Dad some heart flutters!

It dawns on me that without the amazing work of all at Kings Hospital,Guy's and St.Thomas' and Evelina i would not have lifted that blinking heavy trophy up above my head.So.

Along with a few of my mates because I am Billy some mates we are going to do two things one is to sail from Portsmouth in our small dinghies to the Isle of Wight, run and then cycle to the Needles and back again not because i  have a  fear of needles its just a great place to go.The other plan is to take some children who have heart conditions and take them sailing on a nice gentle reservoir in a big RS Venture dinghy and have lots of fun and show some children what steering a boat feels like.Money raised will be to buy some play equipment for children that have to stay at Evelina hospital for more operations, i would like it to be with a water/ sailing theme and we are working on a suitable object and will keep you updated on this.Thanks for reading my little story.  'Many hands in little pockets are as important as one hand in a big pocket' so pass on the word and give what you feel is suitable. I will keep you updated with how are preparations are going Billy