When I was born my Mummy was told that I had a special heart that needed fixing. My Mummy says that I was very poorly and had a big operation on my heart and had to spend the first 10 weeks of my life in hospital. I must have been very brave because I have lots of bravery certificates from the nurses who looked after me.  I had another big operation when I was 6 months old, but only had to stay in hospital for 2 weeks then.

I went to nursery when I was 18 months old and there I met my best friend Harry, who is still my best friend today. I remember having lots of fun at nursery. I also had a nurse who would come and visit me at home to check on me. I liked it when she visited as she would always play with me and give me stickers.

I started school when I was 4, I really enjoyed playing with my friends at school. I found school very tiring and would often fall asleep in the book corner after lunch. The teachers didn’t tell me off though as they knew I had a special heart and got tired easily. When I was in Year One I had another big operation, this time I was in hospital for 7 weeks. I really liked being in hospital. I shared a room with another boy and in the mornings we would wake all the kids up and have trolley races, with the trolleys that had our chest drains in. The nurses used to tell us off and tell us to go back to bed. The people in hospital are really nice and the doctors are very funny. I had to do some school work in hospital but even this was fun as I would play on the iPad, Play Station, Wii or would paint pictures using syringes.

After that operation I had lots more energy. I was able to do most of the activities my friends did and no longer fell asleep at school.

I like doing lots of different activities, I enjoy Skiing, Scouts, Football, Horse Riding, Cricket and Drama. I was recently in a production of the Wizard of Oz where I played a Munchkin, I really enjoyed it and we did 5 shows in a row! I have just joined a local football team and am looking forward to playing in my first match. I really like Lego and K’nex and at school I was chosen out of 60 children to represent the school in the County K’nex Challenge. In the County Challenge I won my group and came 2^nd overall out of 100 schools.

I sometimes get very frustrated with my heart condition, especially when it stops me doing things and it makes me tired. I get annoyed with having to have blood tests and people asking about my scars. But mostly I’m OK with having a special heart.

When I grow up as a job I would either like to be a Ski Instructor – because I enjoy Skiing and I’m really good at it, or a designer for Lego so I can invent new Lego sets and spend my days building Lego. I would also like to be an actor and would love to star in a Star Wars movie.

To all the staff at Birmingham Children’s Hospital thank-you so much for making my Handmade Heart and making it so I can do all the things I want to do.