A boy who had 18 surgeries after he couldn't "lift his head from his pillow" will be spending his birthday in a hospital bed.
Joseph Jones, 12, from Greasby, Wirral, was born a gastroschisis baby, meaning he was born with his bowels on the outside of his stomach. After essential surgery as a baby, Joseph's mum Rebbecca, 43, said he grew into a perfectly "normal toddler."
But years later "he slowly started to deteriorate," and became unable to gain any weight "at all." Mum Rebbecca previously told the ECHO: "He started vomiting, he started losing weight and he was unable to gain any at all.