STARS from soap Hollyoaks will be lacing up their boots to take part in a charity football match organised in honour of a little boy born with 'half a heart'.
Shortly after he was born in 2018, doctors diagnosed Raffi Dargie with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) - a condition where the left ventricle of the heart doesn’t develop properly.
At just 10 days old Raffi underwent high-risk open heart surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital - the first of three operations - to help the right side of his heart to take over the work of the left.
Despite encountering setbacks on his road to recovery - including suffering mini strokes and having his heart had to be restarted twice - Raffi is now a happy four-year-old.
During this time, dad Alek, of Moulton, stayed at Ronald McDonald House Alder Hey, which provides a place to stay for families for as long as their child is in hospital.
To give back to the charity which supported his family, the 39-year-old electrician set up a fundraising football team in 2019.
And on Wednesday, Heart Warriors FC will be playing in their latest match to support Ronald McDonald House Charities UK.
Alek said: “Staying at the House saved us so much in hotel and travel costs but more than that, it allowed us to stay close to Raffi.
"It also meant my older son Blaine, who’s now 10, could come and stay at weekends, so we could be together as a family.
“I was keen to give something back and help drive awareness, so decided to form a non-profit football team of players from across Cheshire to raise funds for the Alder Hey House.”
Sharing some of Raffi's story, Alek added: "My ex-wife Rachel gave birth to Raffi by emergency C-section at Leighton Hospital in Crewe on September 12, 2018.
"He came out looking quite blue, so doctors ran some tests and then decided to transfer him to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where he could be seen by specialists.
"After three days at Alder Hey, we received Raffi’s diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a condition where the left ventricle of the heart doesn’t develop properly.
"At just 10 days old, he underwent stage one of three surgical operations, with the aim of eventually enabling the right side of his heart to take over the work of the left side."
Raffi spent four months recovering in hospital before he was finally able to go home. But just a few weeks later, he was re-admitted to Alder Hey for five months, after brain scans revealed he’d suffered multiple mini strokes.
Alek added: “He stayed in hospital until the next stage of his heart surgery, which was a cavopulmonary shunt (Glenn Shunt), which involves connecting the superior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries.
“Unfortunately, when surgeons made the incision, they discovered Raffi’s heart had fused to his chest bone during the previous operation. The result was a catastrophic bleed and his heart had to be restarted twice.”
Despite the complications, Raffi’s surgery was a success, but the brave youngster would go on to have more operations, including a ‘Fontan operation’, to separate the blood to ensure that only blue blood goes to the lungs and red blood is pumped to the body.
Alek's Heart Warriors FC will be taking on a team of Hollyoaks stars from 7.30pm on May 10 at Runcorn Linnets FC.
The Hollyoaks team is set to include Rishi Nair, who played lawyer Sami Malik; Darren Osborne actor Ashley Taylor Dawson; Dave Kennedy, who starred as Dirk Savage; Nick Pickard who plays Tony Hutchinson; and Owen Warner, also known as Romeo Nightingale, who finished second in last year’s series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.
Tickets are available on the gate, priced at £5 for adults and under 16s are free-of-charge. There’ll also be a raffle, with prizes including a signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool FC shirt and an Everton FC flag, signed by manager Sean Dyche.
Philippa Bradbury, community fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, said: "We were so pleased to be able to lessen some of the emotional and financial burden of having a sick child in hospital for Alek and his family.
"Little Raffi is a real warrior and the funds raised by Alek and Heart Warriors FC in support of him is testament to that.
"We’re really looking forward to the Hollyoaks game and thank all the cast members involved for giving up their time to get behind our vital cause."
To find out more about the event, which is being sponsored by Streamline Site Solutions and Northwich Glass, go to: facebook.com/heartwarriorsfc/ and to donate, visit: justgiving.com/fundraising/brett-stanley1.
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