More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A little boy who has spent most of his life in and out of hospital battling a life threatening condition is on a mission to make hospitals more fun.
Jessie Benardout, seven, from Maidstone, was born with Gastroschisis which means his bowel grew on the outside of his body.
After emergency surgery, he was left with just 10% of his bowel and has been under the specialist care of teams at King's College Hospital ever since.
While long term medication has helped, a side effect is that it can cause chronic liver failure which Jessie was diagnosed with from the age of three.
His condition progressively got worse and it wasn't until April, at the age of six, he finally got the transplant which saved his life.
Since then, he has come on leaps and bounds and is enjoying spending more time at his home in Hardy Street.
To help other children who face long stays in hospitals just like him, Jessie has started the 'Make hospitals more fun campaign' and wants to raise enough money to buy more play equipment, but more specifically a slide.
His Aunt and guardian Lucy Benardout said: "Where he is now able to spend a lot more time at home, he realised just how difficult it was in hospital so now he wants to make that experience better for other children.
"At the Evelina Children Hospital they have a big slide and when we went there for appointments he loved it. He wants to get a slide like this for King's."
To launch his mission, Jessie walked a sponsored 5km around Mote Park as part of King's College Hospital's Santa Dash, something his family never thought would be possible.
Jessie did so well, he smashed his £400 target, totalling £670.
The exact cost of the slide is not yet known but Jessie's hard work will make a generous contribution so teams can start looking at new equipment
Miss Benardout added: "Our walk was wet and rainy but went well. Jessie did amazing and we are all so proud of him.
"It's not known what the future will be like for him. At the moment he is doing so well. He has grown loads and he has put on weight which is a really good indicator that his bowel could start working.
"His life expectancy is still short, and we will probably have to stay in hospital for a long time again in the future, but for now we are focussing on the positives.
"The fact that he has completed his challenge is more than we could have ever imagined."
