A dedicated dad has revealed how he slept rough on the street just so he could be close to his baby, who was in hospital battling a heart condition.
Michael Walsh, 35, spent 25 days living in a tent in Queens Square Gardens in London, outside Great Ormond Street Hospital, where his son Liam was being treated.
Liam was born at just 700 grams with a heart just 20% of the size it should have been. As a result, he spent the first seven months of his life in hospital.
The brave boy has survived seven operations during his little life, however his heart ‘died’ for 43 minutes during one of the traumatic procedures.
Michael said:
The hospital offered me a halfway house with other families but the state of mind I was in I couldn’t.
I needed to be as close to my son as possible so I got a tent until I could get him home.
I think it was around 25 days.
Instead, Michael purchased a £35 tent and would wake up each morning and buy breakfast for his fellow rough sleepers before going to check on his son, who is now 18 months old and ‘doing brilliant’.
Since getting his baby boy home, Michael – whose younger twin brothers are both professional boxers – has gotten into the ring himself to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where Liam was first treated.
He said:
I genuinely couldn’t put into words what those hospitals have done for me.
At one point Liam had a hole in his chest and I could see his heart beating and his lungs.
Nobody has ever done more for me than bring my son back.
On Monday, December 16, Michael won his first fight via knockout during his first time in the ring in four years.
He hopes to raise £5,000 for both hospitals and at the time of writing had raised an impressive £3,342.
Michael has paid tribute to his incredible little boy, saying he has the Walsh family spirit:
He is the bravest boy I have seen in my life and is the happiest boy with two legs.
He doesn’t know anything about fighting but he has come onto the planet and has had to fight for his life day in day out.
What an incredible father-son duo. You can donate to their worthy cause here.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.