Gobowen boy flies to US for surgery after £1.5m heart operation appeal

A mother who raised £1.5m to pay for life-saving heart surgery for her one-year-old son will be flying to the US with him later before his treatment gets under way.

Ollie, from Gobowen in Shropshire, was born with a hole in his heart and defects in his arteries, but was told the surgery he needed could not be performed in the UK.

When his mother, Jasmin, discovered Stanford Children’s Hospital in California could treat him, she set up a fundraising appeal and reached her target in November.

Speaking before boarding the flight, she said: “It’s absolutely insane how much people came together.”

The appeal received more than 100,000 individual donations, including from the Scottish author Leigh Rivers, film star Ryan Reynolds and fundraising lottery group Chaotic Community.

Jasmin said: “Even now its very hard to put into words.”

During December, she said she had been making preparations for the 11-hour flight to California, which included a trip to London to collect their visas.

Ollie has also needed to visit the Wrexham Maelor Hospital for pre-operative checks, which his mother said he has passed “with flying colours”.

“Every single day it just seems there’s something else to do,” she said.

Ollie is due for his first appointment at Stanford Children’s Hospital on 8 January and it will be one of 10 before he is taken in for surgery.

Jasmin said: “I’m, very nervous I’m very scared, but I think right now I’m ready to be there with him, in California.”

How long Ollie takes to recover will depend on how he responds to the surgery, but Jasmin said they expected to remain in Califiornia for between two and three months, before he is able to fly home.

By the end of the year, Jasmin said she hoped the second stage of the procedure could be carried out in the UK and by 2027 a full repair would have been carried out.

“I’m just hoping that by next year we’ll be in a very different place,” she said.