Worthing primary school teacher raising funds for hospital staff who saved his baby's life

Andy Banks, a primary school teacher, will run the Worthing half marathon to raise funds for the Families of Ocean Ward at Southampton General Hospital.

His JustGiving page read: “Our daughter, Ornella, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect during her 20-week scan.

"Following her diagnosis we, as a family, were supported every step of the way by nurses and consultants at University Hospital Southampton, with much of Ornella's care, both pre and post open heart surgery, taking place in E1 Ocean Ward.

"We are truly thankful for the compassionate care and constant support we received during the time we spent on Ocean Ward and I am running to raise money to support families experiencing the same uncertainty and worry as we did.”

Andy, 35, said his now 11-month-old daughter’s health scare was ‘like nothing else’ he and his fiancée Antonia, 34, had experienced before.

"We found out during her 20 week scan at Worthing Hospital that she had a potential problem,” Andy explained.

"We were transferred to Southampton Hospital the following week.

“Ornella was supposed to be born in Southampton but last minute they decided she was well enough to be born closer to home at Worthing hospital. The birth itself was all fine.

“She had frequent fortnightly trips to Southampton after she was born and she was progressing well.

"When she was about four weeks old, she took a bit of a turn for the worse. She was blue lighted to Southampton where she had an emergency stent to make sure she was strong enough for open heart surgery.”

Ornella ‘fought her way to the front of the queue’ for the life-saving surgery. The family faced a nervous four-and-a-half week wait at the hospital until she was well enough to go home.

"It was pretty tough,” Andy said. “We had a four-year-old son at home being looked after members of the family and it was incredibly tough for him.

"Her condition is called Tetralogy of Fallot – a hole in her bottom two chambers.

“Her pulmonary valve is too narrow, so they removed that completely.

“When she is old enough, she will have open heart surgery to remove the valve and hopefully she will be as good as gold and have a similar life expectancy to everyone else.”

Andy said he and Antonia would not have been able to cope as well as they did if it wasn’t for the support of the hospital staff.

“I cannot speak highly enough of the nurses and cardiologists,” he said.

"Every single person we met at Southampton and at Worthing in between have been unbelievable. The fact it's their day to day job just blows my mind.

"You are on a ward with families going through the same thing as you are so can all relate to each other.

“The charity has people on the ward every day checking in on you and making sure you are okay – providing food and financial support, including a place to stay.

“I don't know what else we would have done. We can't thank everybody involved enough.

"There was so much uncertainty and worry but it was certainly made a lot more achievable by the people we met and the organisations we dealt with.”

Families of Ocean Ward's mission is to provide emotional and financial support to children and families making use of the facilities on Ocean Ward. Their aim is to bridge the gap between hospital and home by putting families in touch with others whose child has a similar condition and issues.

To support their work, Andy is training to run the half marathon. He set a fundraising target of £250 but has already exceeded the £2,000 mark. Click here if you would like to donate.

“I'm a primary school teacher in Worthing and have had lots of sponsorships from parents and staff members which is great,” he said.

“It's amazing, I'm blown away. My initial expectation was around the £250 mark and I’ve blown it out of the water so it's great.”