James' Story 

At the 20 week scan, James was diagnosed with a heart defect called Truncus Arteriousis which is a rare type of a heart disease in which a single blood vessel comes out of the right and left ventricles of the heart instead of the normal 2. 

At 34 weeks pregnant,  James decided to come early. 
He was born via emergency c section on 11th January 2017 
and taken straight to the neonatal unit at LGI . Within an hour
of being born, he was taken to the neonatal unit and put on a ventilator as he was too small for the surgery so he needed to grow. After a turbulent 10 days James become very poorly and the doctors said if he made it through the night they would perform an operation to buy him
some time to grow. Thankfully, he made it through the night and the surgery the following day. 

 At the end of March,  James went in for his big operation, he was in surgery for over 10 hours. After this op , he did amazing and went home via the local hospital within a few weeks and went home on Good Friday 2017. 

Since then, he's had a gastronomy tube put in as he can't and
wont feed orally in addition to this he is receiving support for his communication as he is not talking yet and uses Makaton to communicate . He has problem with controlling his eye and this will
need an operation in the future. He is  currently being seen by a neurologist because of abnormal brain activity as well as wearing hearing aids because of glue ear and possible senso-nureol
loss. 

He is having his 3rd open heart surgery very soon and will
need more throughout his life.

The Children's Heart Surgery Fund have been a life line to James his family and many other families who visit the Leeds Congenital heart unit. They provide much needed funding to the congenital heart unit, support for the families and loved ones of those affected. 

We want to help by raising as much money for the CHSF as we can.  No  matter how big or small your donation, they all go a long way as you can see below:

• £30 can go towards a birthday present for a long-term patient on the ward.
• £300 can help the unit buy a INR home testing kit to give to one of the patients allowing them to test their blood levels at home instead of regular trips to the hospital.
• £650 can help provide a bedside trolley and specialist equipment that is vital for treatment.