Aaliyah and AJ walk a mile a day to help the hospital that saved their mother's life

Their mother, Emma Clinton, from Donnington had been complaining of headaches for a while.

Then in November 2019 she collapsed with massive brain damage.

She was rushed to the specialist head injuries unit in the Royal University Hospital Stoke for emergency surgery and she spend months on the wards before being transferred to a specialist nursing home where she remains today, too poorly to be able to go home.

Aaliyah and AJ have not been able to visit her since the first lockdown 12 months ago while their father, Alex Scott, is caring for them on his own.

Mr Scott says he is incredibly proud of their two children and thankful for the friends and family who are giving them so much support.

He said Emma, a teaching assistant at Lawley Primary School, is loved by everyone that knows her.

"She suffered massive brain damage and has to have 24 hour care," he said.

"She has regular chest infections and is on antibiotics now for the most recent infection. The nursing home where she is is near the hospital and it is such a long way to travel. People have been so helpful looking after Aaliyah and AJ."

"Aaliyah wanted to do something to help the ward where Emma was treated. During lockdown families can't visit and can only see their loved ones on laptops that were donated to the ward."

Aaliyah is doing her mile a day after school with her friend McCartney Robinson and his mother, Charlene, a teacher at her school.

"My Mommy became poorly, every day her head was hurting with headaches," she said.

"Then one day Mommy was rushed to hospital and I couldn’t see her for weeks, that made me and my brother AJ very sad. My daddy was upset too and I felt scared and upset.

"Me and my brother just wanted to see our Mommy and we cried a lot. We missed our Daddy too because Daddy had to stay with Mommy so she wasn’t on her own, we stayed with family and friends who helped look after us so Daddy could be with Mommy.

"They still help look after us now and we really like spending time with them and we are very grateful of them because they have helped me and my brother lots."

"The doctors told us that Mommy will have lots of tubes and beeping sound from machines. They told us about Mommy having an operation on her brain to save her life and she has a big bandage on her head and how poorly she was. We were told Mommy could go to heaven to be an angel but I didn’t want my Mommy to leave us . I was scared but couldn’t wait to see my Mommy.

"We were taken to the ward and where we saw Mommy but I was upset because she was asleep. I was very scared because I didn’t like the big machines and wires Mommy had all over her. I just missed her and wanted a cuddle, but I knew the hospital was helping my Mommy stay alive .

"From that day things have never been the same. Mommy will always need people to look after her because her brain will always be poorly and she won’t act like Mommy did before she became ill. One day Mommy will come home and me and my brother will look after her with Daddy because we love her so much. "

Lockdown meant that no more visits could take place.

"Me and my brother have not been able to see Mommy since because the world has a virus called coronavirus," Aaliyah wrote.

" We miss our beautiful Mommy every day and every day I want to be with her. We phone her every day and night. I love I can see and speak to her when we call her. Our Mommy is the bravest strongest Mommy in the world and I hope she is proud of me and my brother AJ. "