A MUM will be taking part in this autumn’s Bupa Great Birmingham Run as a thank you to hospital staff who saved her young son’s life.
Mandy Pearce, aged 32, from Redditch, is in training for the race on October 23, which was formerly the Birmingham Half Marathon and is supported by the Birmingham Mail.
She is aiming to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital where her son Bailey, now aged eight, has had life-saving treatment.
Bailey survived two life-threatening heart conditions within the first three years of his life thanks to doctors.
Now Bailey is full of energy and a keen football player and no-one would guess he was once on the brink of death. At just seven days old, he was diagnosed with two rare heart conditions called Pulmonary Atresia (PA) with ventricular septal defect (VSD).
PA is where one of the heart’s four valves has not formed properly, meaning blood has no way of getting into the lungs to take in oxygen. VSD is a hole in the heart between the left and right ventricles.
Doctors at the hospital performed surgery to correct these two conditions and he went on to recover.
But then ill health struck again when, aged three, Bailey contracted a serious bacterial heart infection and was rushed into hospital again.
He recovered from that, but is due to undergo more surgery in the coming years to repair once and for all his heart conditions.
In the meantime Bailey enjoys a normal active life and even goes to karate lessons with his sister KC, aged four.
“It was a very stressful time but all the staff at the hospital were fantastic,” Mandy said.
“When Bailey had his infection, he was in hospital for six weeks and we were given accommodation nearby which made things a lot more bearable.
“They really made everyone’s stay there comfortable by doing nice things like making us cakes and stocking the fridges with sandwiches.”
Mandy is training hard for the half marathon and wants as many people as possible to sign up to run with her for the hospital: “Bailey’s still here so we owe them everything.”
To enter the race visit the website www.greatrun.org.
