Last updated at 23:45, Thursday, 28 July 2011

An 11-year-old Workington boy has launched a fund-raising drive for the hospital which has been helping his brother, who was left clinically dead for 90 minutes after a heart attack.

FUND-RAISING DRIVE: The Ray family, from left, Caysie, Lynsay, Aiden and Luke, with a photograph of Lyndon who is in hospital

Lyndon Ray, 34, of Portland Square, has spent the past year-and-a-half in hospital, recovering from the heart attack that could have killed him in March last year.

Parents Hazel and James were told there was a slim chance he would survive. He was treated at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven for eight months and moved to the Walkergate Hospital in Newcastle in October.

Sister Lynsay, 27, of Smith Road, Salterbeck, said: “We got a phone call from the doctors at the West Cumberland to say we should say our goodbyes to Lyndon because he got an infection and we were told he wasn’t going to live.

“But somehow he survived and it is a miracle that he did.

“The staff at Walkergate have managed to get him walking with a frame. He sometimes knows our names and it is like a small game for him trying to remember.”

Staff taught him how to swallow his food and communicate.

Younger brother Luke, a pupil at Westfield Primary School, held a coffee morning and raised £430 for Walkergate.

He said: “The idea came up when I was talking to one of my teachers. I am pleased to see how many people have supported it. It took six weeks to organise and I talked to organisations, including the shops at Moorclose and Morrisons which donated things for the raffle and tombola.”

Luke, a member of the Westfield school council, was presented with the Billy Minto Contribution to School Life Award at the school’s prize-giving ceremony.

First published at 19:21, Thursday, 28 July 2011
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk