Raising awareness of infant heart disease

May 27 2009 By Jack Abell

A CHALFONT St Peter mum is hoping to draw attention to the plight of babies across the country who suffer from heart problems.

Kim Turner, who lives in Lovel Road, is mother to 10-month-old Faith, who suffers from the rare Tetralogy of Fallot illness, a condition which affects just one in 100,000 people.

Since Faith was born, she has already had to have one operation because of the problem, and is set for another in the coming months.

Her illness means that there is a narrowing on the right hand side of the heart at the pulmonary valve, and that there is also a hole between the bottom two chambers.

Although Faith is currently doing fine, Kim feels that not enough is currently known by the general public about the condition.

She said: "There are great charities that do fantastic things for people, especially children, with this illness, but no one is aware of it. You hear all the time about the work done by cancer charities, but I think that people need to be more aware about the difficulties that children can have who suffer from this condition.

"As a parent, it is terrifying to hear that your child has something like this wrong with them, and it is terrible when your baby has to go for an operation. If it wasn't for the work that the charities do then thing would be much more difficult."

Despite Faith's illness, Kim has been told that it should not stop from leading a full and active life, and that she should be able to take part in all the physical activities other children her age do when she is growing up.

Kim added: "To look at her, you would never know the problems that she has, but I have been told that if I were to have another child then there would be a 50/50 chance of it having the same condition and that is not a chance that I am willing to take.

"I just hope that if people read this then they will learn more about this illness and will think about trying to help out the charities that have helped Faith."

Faith has been looked after primarily by the Echo charity. To find out more about them visit http://www.echo-evelina.org.uk/