Young shooting victim raises £8k for hospital

Harry Studley with Michael Carter, the neurosurgeon who saved his life

A boy who survived being shot in the head as a toddler has handed a cheque worth more than £8,000 to his "best friend" - the surgeon who saved his life.

Harry Studley, aged nine, from Bristol raised the sum for the Grand Appeal and Bluebell Ward at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children by walking five kilometres (3.1 miles).

He visited the hospital with his father Edward Studley to present the money to consultant paediatric neurosurgeon Michael Carter.

"For our own patients to come and support us like this is absolutely wonderful," said Mr Carter.

Harry and Edward managed to raise eight times their original target

Harry was given just a 1% chance of survival after he was shot with an air rifle in 2016 by a neighbour who used the weapon "to frighten him" without realising it was loaded.

Mr Carter described the surgery to try and save Harry as "one of the most traumatic ones any of us have ever been through".

"He was shot through the head at relatively short distance by a high-calibre weapon, which is a military-type injury in an 18-month-old child," he added.

'Very proud moment'

But despite the "enormous amount of damage" caused, Harry pulled through after four months on Bluebell Ward, though was left partially blind, with epilepsy and weakness in the left side of his body.

Despite struggling with fatigue and mobility, Harry, his older brother and his father successfully completed the challenge on 15 September to raise money for the hospital's Grand Appeal.

The money raised on the walk, with Harry did with his father and hundreds of supporters, was eight times more than their target amount of £1,000

Speaking before the cheque was presented to staff on Friday morning, Mr Studley said: "It was a very proud moment to see him run across the finish line, go and hug his mum and everyone cheering his name, it was a really, really proud moment today."

Edward described watching Harry finish the challenge as a "very proud moment"

'A huge difference'

He described the support the family had received in fundraising as "amazing" and "overwhelming", adding: "We're just so pleased that we could spread the message of the great work they do at the hospital and the great work the Grand Appeal do.

"Hospital is not a nice place for anybody, so if we can fundraise to make a child's experience a little bit better then I'm all for it."

Steph Benson, community fundraising manager at the hospital, told the BBC the money would make a "huge difference" and would go towards delivering pioneering treatments on the ward and helping fund music and play therapists working with children.

"Neurosurgery is incredibly expensive, we use equipment that costs literally millions and things get updated all the time," explained Mr Carter.

"The treatments and the level of care required are really at the top end of the cost chart, so any type of support we can get for these families is fantastic," he added.