A SIX-YEAR-OLD has been fundraising for Alder Hey while wearing his special ‘super hero badge’.

Brave Stockton Heath youngster Ted McCaffery had open heart surgery at the children’s hospital in February and took part at the weekend in a mini triathlon to raise cash for the charity.

After the six hour operation, The Grange Primary School pupil spent 24 hours in intensive care and a week in hospital but after 10 weeks at home he is now looking forward to helping others.

Proud mum Jo, aged 44, said: “He has just started back at school and I think a few children were curious what had happened but we told him his scar is his super hero badge.

“His TV was broken in Alder Hey so he told me he wanted to raise money so the next child in that bed would have a new one to watch when they came round.

“It’s amazing what the hospital has done for him, one of the nurses even went to buy him a chocolate cake when he said that’s what he wanted to eat after the op, and we can’t thank them enough.”

Doctors spotted Ted had a heart murmur during a check up aged one and after being referred to Alder Hey he was diagnosed with subaortic steinosis which means an extra flap of skin was growing in his aortic valve.

Jo, who is also mum to George, aged 18, and Ollie, aged 16, added: “His condition deteriorated before Christmas and we found out on the day of my son’s 18th we had eight weeks to decide whether we wanted him to have surgery.

“We thought about it for a while as to look at him he was an amazingly healthy boy and on the outside looked like there was nothing wrong with him so it was hard to send him for open heart surgery.

“Without the doctor at Stockton Heath medical centre picking up on his heart murmur he could have been another statistic who suffered a heart problem with no warning.”

Ted, who has previously ran the Manchester fun run to raise cash for Alder Hey and Cancer Research after his auntie was diagnosed with the condition, completed the Cycletta Triathlon, which consists of a scoot, bike ride and run on Sunday, and has raised nearly £1,000.

Visit justgiving.com/ted-mccaffery.