Adam Hodgkinson

Adam is known as the miracle boy among the medical staff who helped him fight a strain of meningitis with a 20% fatality rate.

Apart from the usual coughs and colds, Adam had always been fit and healthy until one night in October 2004, when he woke up feeling hot and ill.

Over the next few days he was in and out of hospital while the doctors tried to work out what was wrong and it was only when he started vomiting and saying that his eyes hurt in the bright light that they suspected meningitis.

Adam was rushed back into hospital, given antibiotics, and within four hours he had lost his hearing. He was in a lot of pain but when I tried to comfort him he couldn't bear to be touched and said, "Mummy, why aren't you talking to me?"

His brother Joshua had given him a teddy bear which played a recorded message when you pressed a button. It said, "Happy Birthday Adam, you're the best brother, I love you til' the world never ends, love Josh". Adam kept pressing the button but, not hearing anything, he was convinced that the batteries had gone.

His condition deteriorated further and he was transferred to the high dependency unit, where he was put on a ventilator and given a brain scan. Amazingly, Adam survived but he was left with permanent deafness. Although this news came as a shock, we felt relived just to have him with us.

Adam was fitted with hearing aids in hospital but he cried and said they were rubbish. When he had a cochlear implant fitted in May 2005 I was worried that it would be similarly disappointing but he reacted with sheer joy at the switch-on, saying "there's noises, my ears work!"