AN Orford mum hopes to raise awareness of congenital heart defects in youngsters after both of her children had to undergo open heart surgery.

Helen Halfpenny said she is keen to support the British Heart Foundation's 'Bag it beat it' fundraising campaign as many parents are unaware one in 100 children are born with heart conditions.

The mum to Alex, aged 10, and Katie, aged two, said she regularly worries about the pair straining their hearts but Alex in particular has been a 'little fighter' ever since he was born.

She added: "They were both born with tetralogy of fallot (which means there are four things wrong with the heart) and Alex had to be rushed to the neonatal unit and put on life support as blood was not being circulated around his lungs.

"At 24 hours old, he had already had three heart attacks and couldn't come home until he was six weeks old.

"It was very hard.

"I wanted to cuddle him but he was wired up to all these machines and he was three weeks old before I got to hold him for the first time.

"But once he was off the life support machine I couldn't put him down!"

The St Margaret's pupil, who also has Digeorge syndrome which affects his palate, hearing and sight as well as being diagnosed with ADHD and autism, will now have to wait and see when he will need further operations on his heart.

After finding Helen's husband Steve also had Digeorge syndrome, but it had not affected his heart, the couple were told there was a 50/50 risk a second child would also be born with the condition.

Helen added: "After seeing what Alex had been through, we didn't want to risk it happening again but eight years later Katie was a happy surprise.

"We were terrified from the moment we found out but fortunately her oxygen levels were normal when she was born and she didn't need a bypass during her open heart surgery."

The couple currently do not know how the condition will affect Katie but they are now looking to the future and doing what they can to raise awareness and support funding for research into congenital heart conditions by donating bags of unwanted items to BHF shops.

Visit maxappeal.org.uk and bhf.org.uk for more information.