Two Chesham teenagers have raised more than £9,000 for the hospital that saved their father’s life.

Charlie and Henry Keith’s father Daimon came close to dying from Covid and was so ill, a ventilator was not enough to keep him alive.

Instead, he needed the life-saving ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) unit – a machine which takes over a patient’s heart and lung functions to allow the organs to recover.

It is reserved for some of the worst-affected patients.

His sons decided to fundraise by cycling the Pednor Loop, a hilly 10k loop near their house, once a day for 69 days – the amount of time their father was in the hospital.

Daimon, 50, who lives in Old Trafford with his wife Dorcus, first became ill in March 2020. Having just returned from a fishing trip on the Zambezi River, he initially thought he had contracted malaria.

He said: “I came back on March 1 and on the 18th, I started to feel like my breathing was quite laboured and I had a temperature.

“I lived in Africa for three or four years and I thought all the symptoms were similar to malaria.

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“I had to lay down and my breathing was getting worse so on the 23rd I rang an ambulance from home. I knew something wasn’t right.”

Paramedics drove Daimon to A&E at Wythenshawe Hospital. In the back of the ambulance, he remembers feel delirious and was shifting in and out of consciousness.

At the hospital a chest X-ray caused concern for the medical teams.

The team looking after him decided the best way to treat Daimon was place him on the ECMO machine – to help his organs recover from the Covid.

The next time he woke up, it was seven weeks later.

He said: “I couldn’t believe I’d lost seven weeks – I’d missed my mum’s birthday and Henry’s birthday – so much had happened while I’d been unconscious.”

Daimon had lost 40kg and suffered muscle wastage by the time he regained consciousness and had to re-learn walking eating and doing other basic things.

His sons, who live in Chesham with their mother, said they wanted to do something constructive while their father was ill in hospital.

Henry, 15, said: “We like cycling anyway and it was about the only thing we could really do during lockdown.”

His brother Charlie, 17, added: “We initially thought we’d raise about £1,000 but then the fundraising page just kept going up.

“We raised £9,033.31 in total and then my grandma and auntie gave another £550 at Christmas.

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“It’s an amazing amount of money. We heard a day on the ECMO machine costs the NHS about £10,000 so it’s nice to think we’ve almost done a day’s worth.”

The boys have been able to see their father at weekends and for Christmas under Covid rules, and say they look forward to being able to go on holiday again.

All the funds raised by Charlie, Henry and their family will go to Wythenshawe Hospital Charity, and has been ring-fenced for the ECMO unit so it can help patients and families who need the life-saving treatment for heart and lung conditions.

Wythenshawe Hospital Charity’s community fundraising officer, Jo Thomas, said: “The whole team here at Wythenshawe is incredibly grateful to Daimon’s family for all their wonderful support.

“Daimon is rightly very proud of his sons and we’re so pleased this experience has led him towards a healthier lifestyle too. We wish Daimon the best of luck in the rest of his recovery.”