A LITTLE boy born with a rare heart defect has helped launch an initiative to make it easier for young patients to exercise.

Three-year-old Riley Platts, from Guiseley, was at the unveiling of the Helping Little Hearts appeal to raise £100,000 to stop children missing out on vital activity.

Yorkshire-based national charity Heart Research UK want to fund a “toolkit” that will give every young heart patient in the UK a “prescription” showing how much exercise their condition will allow.

A pilot of the toolkit in Yorkshire was launched this week at the Leeds Children’s Hospital heart ward at an event with cardiologists, young heart patients and Sheffield boxer Tommy Frank, who had a hole in the heart repaired when he was five.

The exercise toolkit is being piloted in Yorkshire and Bristol, with further trials planned in Cardiff, Oxford, Southampton and Birmingham. It will then be rolled out across the UK.

Barbara Harpham, national director of Heart Research UK, said adult heart patients get advice on exercise when they leave hospital, while children often don’t. “These special youngsters should know that it’s good to run around, be in a team – just be active – not sit on the sidelines watching,” she said. “The unique thing about this whole new approach is the personal exercise prescription signed by a medical professional.”

Riley has had a number of operations at Leeds General Infirmary to correct a rare congenital heart defect, truncus arteriosis, and although he is fit and well, he will need further operations as he grows older.

His mother Kathryn Walker, a Bradford schoolteacher, says anything that will help parents of children with a heart condition understand more clearly how active they can be is a good thing.

“Riley is an active little boy and we know how much activity he is capable of, but it is important for parents to know what they can do so their child can benefit from exercise,” she said.

Dr Dom Hares, a Leeds consultant paediatric cardiologist, stressed the benefits to his patients of leading a healthy lifestyle. “This new research project aims to empower patients with congenital heart disease and their families, to provide them with clarity as to what they can do.”