A plea from Ethan's dad.

Remember little Ethan? He's still waiting for his life-saving transplant, still living in hospital.

His lovely family are holding a Charity auction for LLTGL and Stu (Ethan's dad) has a message for anyone who might be able to contribute or support in any way:

My name's Stu Collins.

My son Ethan was born on the 16th December 2007 with Gastoschisis ( Bowel on the outside). Within 6 hours of being born he had his first of many operations to put his bowel back in.
Sadly the majority of his bowel had died, so instead of the normal childs 150cm of bowel, he was left with just 20 cm's. Because of this he couldn't feed normally and needed to have 2 Stomas and a central line fitted (TPN - Temporary Parental Nutrition) , to give him the right calciums, proteins and fats children need.

Over months doctors were hoping his bowel would work, he would start eating and be able to live without his central line (TPN). His bowel didn't work properly so needed to carry on with his TPN. Sadly the known causes of having a central line (TPN) is that it can cause Liver Disease and liver failure.Ethan has now been in hospital since birth and been on TPN just as long (15 months).

His bowel does not work, and his liver is failing rapidly as well.

He has had other operations from joining his stomas back up to having new lines , and gastrostomys fitted. He has had well over 15 blood transfusions, over 10 platelet transfusions and possibly just over 5 Fresh Frozen plasma transfusions.

In November we were told Ethan with the situation his was in then and how ill he was that he would not make it too Christmas. Well he suprised everyone and is still doing it now.
His only option we've been told is that he needs a Liver and Bowel Transplant, the sooner the better.

Me and my family have been to papers, radio stations etc. to try and get more people on the donor list, not just for Ethan but for other families out there in the same situation.

Me and 7 of my family are doing the Bupa Manchester 10km run and raising money for LLTGL, which has nearly hit 2000 pounds already!! The evening of the race we're arranging a charity auction night, to continue to raise money.So i'm pleading to anyone who reads this that if you now anyone with contacts anywhere who could help us out with anything, that would be fantastic.

And its all going to a fantastic cause which we chose.

Thank you, Stu Collins x

Could you do something to help the Collins family? Please get in touch with us via the website if you can help.

Thank you.