A father from Mattishall who stepped into the ring for a charity boxing match has revealed that the fundraising effort earned over £2,000 for a specialist hospital unit.
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital took care of Matthew Gostling and Kirsty Smith's new-born son, Logan, for the first 12 weeks of his life.
Logan was born prematurely and with a condition called Gastroschisis, which caused his intestine to grow on the outside of his body.
His parents were determined to give something back and that was when the idea of a charity boxing match emerged.
Mr Gostling undertook an intensive three month training programme with Norwich's Tower Fitness club and bravely climbed into the ring on July 15. The fight proved so popular that it was named fight of the night.
Since then, the family have been counting the donations and say their current estimate is that they raised over £2,000. That figure was also helped by donations made at the funeral of Mr Gostling's grandfather who passed away the day after Logan was born.
Six days after the fight Logan was also allowed to go home with his parents and has gone from a very sick 2lb 5oz baby to a strong five month old boy, weighing around 10lbs.
'Logan is coming up to six months,' said Mr Gostling. 'He has been home about a month and it is just awesome to have him with us. He has now hopefully had his last operation but his condition will be controlled by drugs and diet.
'Kirsty and I are just so thankful to all the staff on the NICU and Buxton Ward for all the care that they have given Logan – a special thank you must go to the surgical team headed by Mr England.
'Until you personally go though having such a poorly child that requires such intense treatment, you don't realise what a wonderful hospital we have in Norfolk and the fantastic work that they carry out every day.
'He will need to continue with drug treatment and most probably there will be diet issues. So the discussion of his illness will come up when he is older and when explaining this to him I will be able to say daddy did this fight to help the unit that helped you, so they can continue to help other babies.'
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