UNITED by their tiny tickers these tough youngsters are the faces of a community campaign to raise awareness of childhood heart conditions.

Every one of these children – fondly nicknamed the 'Heart Warriors' – has battled through major heart surgery at a young age.

Now, fighting fit, their parents have joined forces to create a number of photos for Heart Week, which runs until Sunday and raises awareness of babies with serious heart problems.

Mother-of-two Rebecca Hopkin, from Bicester, discovered during her 20-week scan that her first child, Billy, had a hole in his heart and that its arteries were connected to the opposite chambers.

She said: "We were told that our baby had transposition of the great arteries and a hole in the heart.

"We were offered a termination or an operation when Billy was born.

"The operation had a 98 per cent success rate so of course we went ahead with the pregnancy."

It meant that when baby Billy was just seven days old he needed a 13-hour operation to cut his arteries and situate them in the correct position and close the hole in his heart.

Mrs Hopkin said: "It was the longest 13 hours of my life.

"Billy faced a very difficult road to recovery, and it was touch and go for a while – though the surgery was an overall success."

The 31-year-old said she is 'very lucky' as just one-in-three parents are told of these kind of heart conditions during pregnancy.

She said: "It was horrendous as parents but at the same time it enabled us to prepare as much as possible – a lot of people don't have that."

Mrs Hopkin and her husband James said the early diagnosis meant they were able to visit Southampton Hospital, where Billy was born, and were also able to have the midwife, doctor and a resuscitation team in the room for his birth in May 2016.

Billy was allowed home at five weeks old and Mrs Hopkin, a personal assistant with Oxford mental health charity Response Organisation, soon found a Facebook group for families of the Ocean Ward at Southampton Hospital.

She said: "There was a lady on there from Bicester whose son, Sonny, was four months older than Billy and had heart surgery too.

"I sent her a message, we met up and became great friends.

"Our boys have become best friends too."

Through Facebook, Mrs Hopkin, who is also a keen photographer, met five other local mums of children who have had heart surgery and called on them all to help raise awareness for national charity Tiny Tickers.

Mrs Hopkin turned her living room into a photography studio with the youngsters to create a series of pictures for Heart Week.

The 'Heart Warriors' included Isabelle Harman, four, who had surgery at two months old for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery and four month old Austin Merry who had surgery at just six days old for coarctation of the aorta.

The others were Maison Allan, 15 weeks, who needed an operation at 11 weeks old for tetralogy of fallot, a condition seven year old Kyle Miller also had alongside a number of other heart defects for which he has had two operations and is awaiting another.

Maisy Young, one , had her first operation at six weeks old for a heart condition called tricuspid atresia and pulmonary stenosis.

Mrs Hopkin added: "Tiny Tickers is very much about raising awareness during pregnancy and the money they raise goes to training ultrasound technicians on what to look out for."

Now almost two years old, Billy's lifesaving surgery means the youngster is a healthy little boy and he is now a big brother to four week old Poppy.

Mrs Hopkin said: "He just has regular checks at the John Radcliffe Hospital every six to nine months so he is doing fine and is just my little monster."

To donate or for more details on Tiny Tickers see tinytickers.org/get-involved/heart-week