Janek, age 6 and his mum joined us earlier this week to meet the Chelsea FC first-team

Janek was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot – a group of four structural abnormalities within the heart that occur together. When he was only ten months old, he had repair surgery at Royal Brompton and will need further surgery in the next few years.

As a big Chelsea fan, we invited Janek and his mum to join us at Chelsea's latest Community Day to give him a well-deserved reward for the difficult times he and his family have been through. He had the chance to watch manager Frank Lampard put the players through their paces before getting some great mementoes from the day in the form of photos and autographs.

In his excitement leading up to the day, Janek had drawn a very special picture to give to one of Chelsea’s star players, Mason Mount. Mount was delighted to receive the picture and even gifted Janek and the other young guests a Chelsea football, taking the time to have a little kick-around with Janek afterwards!

Following the day, Janek’s Mum said:

Thank you for making it all happen, it’s the first time we have seen him speechless! He loves the ball [from Mason] and we are so grateful for this special day.

Our Charity has been working with Chelsea FC and the Chelsea Foundation for over a year, giving young patients at our hospitals the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the Chelsea players at an open training session. We'd like to say a big thank you to both Chelsea FC and the Foundation for their ongoing partnership and support. 

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