Elijah Joakim Halse ("Lightning" to his friends) lived a short, intense life in the Jessop's Hospital in Sheffield. He was born extremely prematurely at 25 weeks and 3 days, and lived for just 37 days. He initially showed every sign and potential of leading a healthy life; he had a good heart, lungs, brain and kidneys. He was given outstanding care by the NHS staff. However he deteriorated suddenly and without warning having developed NEC (necrotising enterocolitis). He stabilised enough for investigative surgery. This showed the need to remove most of his small intestine and left him with Short Bowel Syndrome. He was making a good recovery from the surgery, but a routine head scan revealed extensive damage to his brain. While he was extremely ill, his brain had been deprived of blood. The damage was so great there was no hope of him recovering and we made the difficult decision to move from intensive to palliative care.

We were very lucky to have him, but his life was painfully short. He showed determination and strength in the challenges he faced so young. We hope that through fund raising for Action Medical Research we can make a small difference in the care for other babies in a similar situation in the future.

Elijah's Tribute Fund was setup with Action in 2013. You can see all the donations and messages made towards Elijah's fund from then until now at www.action.org.uk/tribute/elijahhalse