In February 2019 myself and my wife found out we were expecting another child. On the 20 week scan we were told we were getting referred to Leeds children's hospital as there was an abnormality with his heart. After further test at Leeds it was confirmed that he indeed had a heart condition, meaning he had a hole in the heart, narrow arteries and other issues. We we also informed our son only had one kidney and needed further tests to find out why. Our lives were turned upside down as they carried out multiple tests on mother and baby and advised us what would happen if the results came back how they expected.

On September 20th 2019 Mylo was born, and despite pre-birth plans to take him away to a special care unit, he was given to us and allowed to stay with us as we stayed in the hospital for the next week. After many more tests, we were allowed to take our son home. 

Mylo had open heart surgery on the 16th of March and after 2 days in intensive care he was moved to a high dependency unit then finally sent home a week later where he has made an amazing recovery. while we were in hospital the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund provided us with accommodation and support. Almost everything on the heart surgery ward was provided by the charity, including all the specialist equipment used to monitor the children during their stay.  They also provide entertainment for the kids such as Games, computers and even a fish tank for the children to walk to as part of their recovery  

The work done by the charity play a huge part in making such a hard time so much easier  for that we will always be grateful.

A group of us will be running the full 50 mile route of the Calderdale Way in one day. the route has 2,595m of elevation gain, the equivalent of going up Ben Nevis nearly twice!! 

We are doing this to raise money for The Childrens Heart Surgery Fund, a charity set up to raise money for the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit. For more information on this amazing charity, please go to 

https://www.chsf.org.uk/

Thank you!

Rick