When her son was sick with a rare heart condition, Julie Montanari spent the best part of two years by his side at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Unable to work as a self-employed hairdresser, single mother Julie slept on the floor of her son Leon's ward and ate leftover hospital food that he did not want as it was all she could afford.
A devoted mother of two precious sons from Sunnybank in Clydach, Julie sacrificed everything to make sure her children had what they needed, but still felt desperate as Leon got more and more sick. One day, she leant to give her son a kiss in his hospital bed and collapsed on top of him out of sheer exhaustion.
When Julie lost her little boy at just thirteen years old, she vowed to make sure other families would not face what she had gone through alone and devoted her time to fundraising for a foundation set up in her son's name. The Leon Heart Fund was originally started to send Leon to America to visit doctors there but sadly he did not live to make the trip. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
