A community is rallying around grieving parents to purchase a 'forever bed' for their late two-week old son.

Tasha Barnes and Anthony Edwards, of Rhayader, tragically lost their son Levi in August 2019 just over a fortnight after he was born with a heart defect.

His parents, and Levi's older brothers Lucas and Leon, are now looking to raise money for a memorial headstone to their "little fighter", and to raise awareness of the effects of a congenital heart defect, Transposition of the Great Arteries, which Levi was born with at St Michaels Maternity Hospital in Bristol.

Speaking to the County Times, Ms Barnes said: "It has been so raw it is only now that we are able to start talking about everything.

"We have been having counselling from When You Wish Upon a Star and they have been fantastic, as have our friends and family who have been with us since we were at the hospital with Levi."

Levi was born on August 9, diagnosed with the complex heart defect which required him to have open heart surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Bristol at just six days-old.

Ms Barnes added: "After almost losing our baby boy during the surgery, as he also had a hole which was hard to close with the position, when he came back to intensive care he was put on an ECMO (life support) machine.

"This gave his heart and organs the rest they needed but he remained critical. Every hour was blessed. As days passed he was weaned of the ECMO machine but after an hour our baby boy went into cardiac arrest and it took 22 minutes to restart.. Thankfully they did and decided to put him back on and a plan was made to take him back down for surgery to see what could be done further.

"After another few days back on ECMO the doctors saw on a brain scan our baby boy had developed bleeding on the brain.

"But still he continued to fight he was again weaned of the ECMO which was a success."

Ms Barnes said that although everything seemed to be going well, Levi developed more bleeding on his brain, slow kidney failure, and his parents were faced with a heartbreaking decision on August 26.

She added:"Levi just couldn't fight anymore, it got too big for him, and we had to make the hardest heartbreaking decision of our lives to turn of our gorgeous boys' life support and he passed away in our arms.

"We just don't know what went so wrong now the wait continues for post-mortem results."

Ms Barnes said she and Mr Edwards have been amazed by the support shown so far in their campaign, as they target £2,500 through their online GoFundMe page.

She said: "We are shocked really at all the people coming forward to help. We are hoping to get the headstone for Levi's first birthday if that's possible.

"But we also want to raise awareness of Transposition of the Great Arteries, because although everyone says it's the best one to have for recovering, it shows with Levi that not everyone does."

If anyone wishes to make a donation towards a headstone memorial for Levi, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/levi-funeral-and-headstone?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unknown&utm_campaign=comms_45sj+levi-funeral-and-headstone