Mum to honour son's memory in 12-hour swimathon

A mum says she wants to make her late baby son proud by completing a 12-hour swimathon in his memory.

Gemma Baddeley, along with about 40 other mums from Hagley, in Worcestershire, will swim relay laps of Broadfields Lake in Cutnall Green on Sunday from 07:00 to 19:00 BST.

Her son, Kit, died in September at 14 months old, just eight weeks after he had been diagnosed with the rare mitochondrial disease, Alper's, which is a genetic and incurable condition that saps energy from the body's cells.

"He was an incredibly happy, gorgeous, loving and brave little boy, and we are determined to make him proud and honour his memory by raising as much money as we can," she said.

Ms Baddeley added: "Kit was a seemingly healthy little boy until he became unwell with vomiting less than a week after his first birthday and was found to have acute liver failure.

"He came home after three weeks but had become very weak, and just three days later we were told he had Alper's disease.

"Given his age and symptoms, we were told he would deteriorate rapidly and were referred to palliative care.

"He passed away peacefully at home just two months after he became unwell."

According to the NHS, the disease is caused by mistakes in the DNA of a gene called POLG, which provides the instructions needed to make a specific protein.

There are currently no cures or treatments for the disease.

The swimathon will raise money for The Noah Jordan Foundation, a small charity set up in memory of a baby boy called Noah.

He passed away last year, aged just nine months, after also being transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital for liver failure.

The fundraising challenge was the idea of Tammy Shepherd, who founded the Mums Go Wild Swimming group.

She said: "The swim group started with a group of mums at Hagley Primary School and we were all heartbroken by what had happened to Kit.

"We wanted to come together to do something positive in his memory, and a sponsored swimathon felt like the perfect thing to do, as it's what brought us together in the first place."

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