Mansfield family ‘in hell’ after baby’s holiday illness

Sophia said: “We are desperate to get our little boy home.

“Being by Matthew’s bedside is the only place I feel I should be right now, and although every day is frightening and uncertain, being with him is what keeps me going.

“We would never normally ask for help like this. It is a situation we could never have imagined finding ourselves in, and we simply cannot make this happen on our own.

“Our only hope is to get Matthew back to the UK, where he belongs, so he can be reunited with his dad and receive the ongoing specialist care he needs.

“We are just a family who went away on holiday with our healthy little boy, and we desperately want to bring him home.”

Lia’s Wings said commercial airlines are not equipped to carry children in Matthew’s condition, while a dedicated air ambulance is “prohibitively expensive”.

Charlotte Young, the charity’s chief operational officer, said: “We are looking at a private aircraft with a medical team we have on standby.

“I would describe Sofia as living on earth but in hell, she is emotionally distraught.

“The only place she feels like there is any way of coping is when she is beside his bed.

“She does not know what is next, she is in limbo and she is finding it incredibly hard.”