The amazing Wearside boy who fought back from a mini stroke - and a major brain operation

The seven-year-old, who suffers from a one-in-a-million condition which is called Moya Moya, has gone half a year completely free of suffering from stroke.

And the total turnaround comes just nine months after he needed surgery on both sides of his brain at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in March 2019.

Surgeons spent more than five hours operating on him to increase the blood flow to his brain.

Yet now he is completely free of mini strokes, called TIAs, and showing great improvements in his health.

He loves swimming and is doing better at school.

Mum Jade Abbott, 29, from Easington Lane, put it down to the success of the operation and said it had made a huge difference.

“Everything has opened up in his head and I think it is the brain operation that has helped,” said Jade.

Remarkably, Corey won a Child of Courage trophy at the Sunderland Echo’s Best of Wearside Awards just three weeks after undergoing major surgery.

He even got on the stage to collect the trophy himself even though he suffered another mini stroke at the event.

But Jade and Corey still remember the awards night which turned out to be so memorable and so dramatic.

“It was a great night apart from Corey being poorly,” said Jade.

The ceremony had just started when Corey’s hand went limp and his speech was slurred in a TIA attack which lasted more than 20 minutes.

When the brave boy finally came round, he had missed the first part of the evening’s proceedings at the Stadium of Light.

But remarkably, he recovered in time to hear his name being called out as a Child of Courage winner and he collected the award to a standing ovation.

Jade said: “I was in the room at the time and it was a bit overwhelming. I would definitely encourage people to nominate for this year’s awards, especially for the Children of Courage.”

Now comes the search for entries to this year’s competition which has backing from headline sponsor BGL, partner sponsor Utility Alliance, partner sponsor Gentoo, and category sponsor Marelli.

We thank them all for getting on board, and now comes your turn to get involved.