Joachim's Story

Nine-year-old Joachim was born with a condition which squashed his lungs and prevented them from developing properly.

At four days old, a member of the WellChild-funded team at Kings Hospital operated on Joachim to investigate the damage to his lungs and his family were told that there was a good chance he would survive.

When he was two months old, Joachim was strong enough to breathe on his own and he went home for the first time, only to be back in hospital a few months later when an x-ray revealed that his heart had been pushed to the wrong side of his body due to the damage to his lungs.

Treatment to stop his lungs growing any bigger addressed the problem and Joachim is now doing incredibly well and is rarely even absent from school, although he still sees the WellChild-funded team at the hospital for regular check-ups.

Joachim is one of the artistic youngsters who have helped WellChild to create their 2009 Christmas cards with the help of players from the England football team.