TOMORROW is a day that the parents of bonny baby Charlie Stones feared they may never see.

Rebecca Lefort

TOMORROW is a day that the parents of bonny baby Charlie Stones feared they may never see.

Today he is an excitable, mischievous and happy toddler, but just one year ago his parents Chris and Jo were facing a race against time to find a hospital to save his life.

Little Charlie, who celebrates his first birthday tomorrow, was diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) just a few days after he was born.

The disease is a serious illness in which tissues in the intestine become inflamed and start to die.

The couple, of Fircroft Road, Ipswich, faced an agonising struggle as doctors desperately tried to find a hospital to treat their newborn because Ipswich Hospital couldn't perform the operation needed to save his life.

Mrs Stones said: “We want to thank so many people. Charlie was treated by so many doctors and nurses but they all still treated him like they knew him and they were all great. From Ipswich Hospital to the Royal London he didn't seem to be just another baby.”

- For more on this story see tonight's Evening Star.