The family life of York City favourite Keith Walwyn was plunged into turmoil when his baby boy nearly died. As that baby prepares for his 18th birthday, mum Liz tells CHRIS TITLEY how she will always be grateful for the support of Evening Press readers.

LITTLE James Walwyn is not so little any more. He turns 18 on Saturday, stands 6ft 4ins tall and is a very promising basketball player. You would be lucky to meet a healthier, fitter young man.

James's hale appearance belies a medical history that has seen him on the critical list more than once. His dad, too, has pulled through life-threatening heart problems. No wonder wife Liz feels they have dealt with more than their fair share of anguish.

Now living in Kirkham, Lancashire, the Walwyn family is remembered affectionately by Evening Press readers. Striker Keith was a huge hit with York City fans, and the news that their baby was dangerously ill rocked everyone.

After James pulled through, readers responded to the family's appeal by raising thousands of pounds for the children's wards at the hospital which saved his life, Killingbeck in Leeds.

That support is something the family will never forget. And, as their son takes his first step into adulthood, mum Liz wanted to say thank-you.

It is 15 years since Keith Walwyn last pulled on a York City shirt. His enduring popularity among the faithful is evident from a 1998 poll where he was voted runner-up in the Evening Press's search for the club's all-time Local Hero.

His popularity could be summed up by two words: attitude and goals. The powerful striker never stopped running and never stopped scoring in his six seasons at Bootham Crescent.

He enjoyed himself off the pitch, too, and it was while nightclubbing in Bradford that a young woman called Liz Brunning caught his eye.

"We met because he nearly broke my foot looking for someone else and I called him a very rude name," Liz recalled.

"At the end of the evening he asked me for my phone number. It was three or four weeks afterwards he got in touch."

Their first date was on December 4, 1981; they were married on the same day a year later.

James arrived in York District Hospital on November 9, 1985. At first, all was well.

"He was a very much wanted child. At the time of the birth we were thinking everything was okay. It was a couple of days later things started happening."

The doctor who delivered him had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. He sent James for an x-ray. The news wasn't good. Doctors knew there was something wrong with James's heart, and that it was serious, but they could not give an exact diagnosis.

James was taken to Duncan Walker, a heart specialist at Killingbeck Hospital, who resisted operating until June the following year when James would be stronger. The prognosis was stark: his chances of surviving the surgery were 50-50.

The waiting was agony. "In the time before his operation he used to sleep all night long. That was the only time he did," said Liz.

"He was a 12-hours a night baby. You weren't getting any signals through the night that said, 'mum, I'm okay'.

"Each morning you would go in with bated breath, wondering are things going to be the same as yesterday?

"It was the worst thing I had ever gone through, and it was the same for Keith. But we had a lot of good friends. A lot of people in York were always there for us."

When surgeons finally operated on James, they discovered his heart was on the right hand side of his chest instead of the left and was pushing on a lung. They also found he was suffering from a diaphragmatic hernia.

This occurs when the diaphragm muscle does not form properly, allowing organs to enter the chest cavity hindering the growth of the lung.

Despite the seriousness of the problems, surgeons were confident the operation had gone well. But even they were stunned by the speed of James's recovery.

Liz was told he would be in intensive care for weeks, and then kept in a hospital ward for weeks more; in the event, he was home within a fortnight.

His recovery continued in the same fashion. Doctors said they could not give the "all clear" to James until he was 18; they were able to do so when he was 11.

It is a fantastically uplifting story, but it didn't end there. Liz and Keith wanted to give something back to Killingbeck, which had saved their son, and set about a fund-raising appeal which was publicised in the Evening Press.

Readers responded generously. "The people of York were just tremendous," Liz recalled. "We got help from everybody." They ran the appeal for a year and were delighted to hand over £12,500 to the hospital at the end of it.

"We really wanted to say thank-you again," she said.

Yet it wasn't the end of the family's health nightmares. During the darkest hours of James's illness, Keith "used to go on to the football pitch and use that as his space, to rid all of his frustration and aggression," Liz said.

But the playing career that was so important to him was to come to a shocking end. In March 1991 Keith, now playing for Kettering Town, collapsed during a game and was rushed to hospital suffering from heart problems entirely unrelated to those suffered by his son.

Keith was diagnosed as having an irregular heartbeat and had an operation to fit a defibrillator, which will shock his heart back into action if it stops. After subsequent problems he is on to his third defibrillator, the last implanted in April.

James, too, has had more recent health crises. Last year his appendix burst and this, doctors believe, is what led to him suffering acute kidney failure, which required more emergency surgery.

Fortunately, this fighter has pulled through again. Although the illness mucked up his GCSEs he was awarded ten passes, all good grades, and is now studying four A levels.

A talented sportsman, James swapped football for basketball when he joined secondary school, and now plays for top team Blackpool Lights. He plans to go to university with a basketball scholarship.

Mercifully, his younger brother Matthew, 12, has escaped serious illness. He lives, eats and sleeps football, and he's got buckets of talent too.

For four years he has trained at Blackburn Rovers Academy, and he has just signed a new two year contract with them. There he is coached by former professional footballers who were contemporaries with Keith.

Liz says Matthew is good with both feet, and can play on both the right and left wing, although he prefers being striker, just like his dad.

Keith, meanwhile, runs specialist shop Kirkham Sports. Liz used to work there too, until becoming a nurse. After all, she'd had enough practise in the family...

At times, she admits, she thought "somebody somewhere has got it in for me. But then I think the almighty must like me because everything seems to work out eventually."

Updated: 11:12 Thursday, November 07, 2002