Jack Maher looks like any normal toddler as he chats away while sitting on the floor moulding Play Dough.

It is hard to believe he depends on regular hospital visits and life-long medication to keep him healthy.

The two-year-old was born with hypopituritarism, which prevents his body producing essential growth hormones, and has also left him with a weak immune system and vulnerable to infection.

As a result, his parents Dave Maher, 42, and Sarah Simpson, 33, of Townsend Square, east Oxford, have become used to travelling to the John Radcliffe Hospital as well as administering daily growth hormone injections to their son.

Thames Valley Police civilian worker Miss Simpson said: "He was very cold and sleepy when he was born, and the doctors couldn't work out what was wrong, and had him in observation. We ended up in hospital for three weeks before they found out what was wrong and he was in and out of the special care baby unit.

"His body doesn't produce the hormones he needs to grow, and if he gets a bug he goes downhill really quickly and can even fall unconscious. He goes to see his specialist at least once every three months and we've been to accident and emergency five times."

Because of their regular visits to the JR, the family understand how important it is that children receive the best care possible - in the best possible surroundings.

Miss Simpson said: "You never think things like this will happen to you and when it does you need all the support and help you can get.

"Jack should grow normally and be like any other child. It shouldn't stop him doing anything, but the hospital staff are always at the end of the phone if we need them.

"I think it's important for everywhere to have a good hospital for children, but more so for Jack because he suffers a lifelong condition.

"I know that the new children's hospital will be a great asset for both his medical care and for the support we, as his parents, continue to receive."