Boy's heart surgery fundraiser surpasses £900k

The fundraiser goal is £1.5m

A fundraiser to send a baby to the US for heart surgery has raised more than £900,000.

Ollie from Gobowen, in Shropshire, was born with a hole in his heart and defects in his arteries.

His mother, Jasmin, said UK hospitals told her that they could not operate on him and had only offered palliative care, so the funds are to take him for surgery at Stanford Children's Hospital in California.

"I'm just absolutely gobsmacked, people are just so kind," said Jasmin.

"I know the internet can be a bad place, but for me, we're on the right side of it.

"I know it's such a massive figure, but it hasn't seemed to put people off, people are still putting everything they've got towards Ollie."

Jasmin said a Scottish romance author, Leigh Rivers, donated £100,000 to the appeal on Monday, on top of £10,000 she had already given.

Hollywood star and co-chair of Wrexham FC, Ryan Reynolds, had previously donated £10,000 to the appeal.

Jasmin said she had put her house on the market to try and add money to the pot.

"We want to get him there as soon as possible," she said.

The flurry of donations comes after a video she posted on TikTok went viral, amassing more than four million views.

Content creators on the platform set up a £1 challenge, and have raised about £30,000.

Viral TikTok 'kicked off' appeal

At the start of the process, Jasmin was told that that price of the treatment in America would be £3m, because it is a two-stage surgery.

"As a mum you're going to try anyway," she told the BBC.

"We set up the GoFundMe, started on the socials, we'd go out in the rain with posters to businesses.

"We had an appointment with Ollie's cardiologist here in the UK who said that they should be able to do stage two of the surgery, so that cut the total down to £1.5m, which is still obviously an absolutely staggering number."

She said going viral on social media "kicked off" the appeal.

NHS England said: "Our thoughts and best wishes go to Ollie and his family."

"While we cannot comment on individual medical cases, all patients with heart conditions such as this, will have their treatment considered by an expert multidisciplinary team to offer the safest and most appropriate care plan."