"Leo was born on the 5th August 2010 and he was the most beautiful baby ever. Leo had such an unfortunate start to his life at the age of just 10 weeks he caught chicken pox which covered his whole body, this led to septicaemia and then Meningitis. Leo was quickly rushed to Bristol Children's Hospital where he was sedated for what felt like forever. Leo was a brave boy and such a little fighter that he was able to fight this off. He got better slowly but not without his fair share of problems. Leo was badly scared from the chicken pox, he was on anti-fitting drugs as the doctors believed he had developed epilepsy as a result of the meningitis. Leo had fluid drained from around his heart, seeing him lay there with all the tubes was just the worst feeling ever. We thought we were going to lose our little man after such a short time of knowing him. I travelled to Bristol everyday just to see him and make sure he was still fighting.

 "We prayed and prayed and little Leo came home one month later. It was the best feeling ever. We thought if he has got through this then our little fighter can beat anything. We named him Leo the Lion. Leo made great progress over the next couple of weeks, he had many outpatient appointments, but it seemed to be on the right path and then a couple of days before Christmas we found out he was showing possible signs of curable palsy which was just devastating news after we thought he would make a full recovery. But you know what, you deal with what life throws at you, you come to terms with it and you move on.

 "So we enjoy Christmas and look forward to a new year and pray it is better than the year before.  Leo had a good start to the new year. We had talked about coming off the anti-fitting drugs so we started to cut them down slowly and see how it goes. Not the best idea. Leo is having fit after fit and is back in hospital before we know it, the place we didn’t ever want to go to again. Leo was put on a new drug and we spend a couple of days in hospital and we come home. Things are going great, Leo starts on solid food, taking it well, growing into a perfect little boy. His development was delayed but we expected it after all he had been through. We carry on with life, always cautious that Leo would catch something else and true as it might be he is back in hospital with pneumonia, wired up like electric baby again, struggling to breath. We were scared he couldn’t breathe alone and he looked so poorly. Praying was the only thing we could do and we hoped that our little Lion would make it through.

 "A week in hospital and he does it, he gets stronger and pulls himself through, definitely living up to his name. Leo comes home again and we carry on, Leo has a good couple of months nothing more than a cold, we were all thinking 'Come on Leo, you can do this'. Leo learnt to sit up unaided and started saying da da. We would sing 'Clap hands Leo' and his face would light up and he would clap his hands. Leo’s first birthday was approaching, we were so excited, a milestone we thought we would never get to. We had always said 'Come on Leo, just get to one and you will be bigger and stronger'. Leo was poorly leading up to his birthday, he had a temperature but he had been so well we thought he was just teething. 5th August has arrived 'Hooray its Leo’s first birthday' Amazing day, presents and cards. Leo was still under the weather so we cancelled his little party. Later that evening Leo deteriorated, he was struggling to breathe but his temperature was ok. He was showing signs of pneumonia but could this be true? Surely not. How unlucky could one little boy be to get it twice in one year. Leo goes to hospital again on his first birthday, we can’t believe it but we look to the future and plan to have a big birthday bash when Leo comes home. So the hospital confirms that our little Lion has pneumonia again, not only has he got pneumonia but has got full blown pneumonia, his whole lung is full of fluid. So off we go again Leo is wired up to the max, Leo just sleeps whilst the doctor gets him on antibiotics and help with his breathing.

"Leo isn’t sedated but yet he sleeps for the next couple of days. How tired can you be? Leo shows no signs of improvement so is transferred to the Bristol Children’s Hospital. Leo is a very poorly boy but he has been through so much we keep praying for him. Leo is sedated and put on the machine to support his breathing again. He has tubes in his mouth, both nostrils, in his groin, on his finger and toe. He literally looks like an electric baby. We talk to him everyday keeping his spirits up saying 'Come on Leo, we love you Leo'. His response rate on the machine goes up when we talk to him, this gives us faith he will get better. Leo was only able to keep his stats stable for such a short period of time that we knew at this point it was serious, but we pray and know he is coming home and then we get the news his body has created 2 infections which were literally eating his body alive.

"This was so rare that the doctors were baffled by it but they keep going, pumping his body full of pain killers and antibiotics. The doctors put a drain in his lung to clear some of the infection, this works, he shows slight improvement and we breathe a sigh of relief. However just a short 24 hours later he needs more drains in his body and ends up with a record breaking 5 drains in at one time. Well, record breaking for that hospital, not exactly the achievement we were hoping for. Leo is showing no signs of improvement and his blood pressure is all over the place. Wednesday the 17th August we get called into the doctor’s office (you know then it can’t be good) but you stay optimistic. We were told he is very poorly and his body just wasn’t accepting any of the drugs, and that he needed to put up a fight for himself, the doctors had done what they could. Devastating news, how could this be, our little Lion that had been through so much giving up the fight. We had to tell friends and family they all came to see him on the Thursday to spur him on give him one last chance to fight for his life.

"We had him baptised on Friday 19th August with close friends and family all stood around him holding hands. We had got through a lot of tissues by this point. Leo was so poorly, there was nothing the doctors could do and he was deteriorating rapidly, this was life for our baby and we had to come to terms with the fact the doctors had to turn the machine off. We were devastated our baby was going to die. We lost our little Leo on Friday 19th August at 5.30pm. The room had never seemed so quiet as when they turned the machine off. It was silent. The doctors removed most of the tubes and picked Leo up to hand him over to Mum, Leo’s face smiled as they moved him and as Mum cuddled him he had gone, our Lion was sleeping. What were we faced with now was telling people, a life with no Leo and arranging to bury Leo. It never seems right that you have to bury your own children. We know that Leo wasn’t put on this earth to destroy us or cause us any pain, he was with us for a reason and we cherish every moment we had with him. He was the most beautiful baby who had a life of suffering more than he deserved."

Although we didn't get the outcome we wanted we cannot fault the work the Bristol Children's Hospital had done for Leo. They were amazing and for us they deserve every credit. We would like to support them in helping the lives of other children.

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