THE slightest excitement or fright could cause eight-year-old Jordan Clothier's heart to stop beating, causing him to lose consciousness and fall to the ground - but the youngster is more worried about the children he met on Southampton’s heart unit and has embarked on a sponsored silence to help other patients.

Jordan, from Shirley Warren, was five when he was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called reflex anoxic seizures – caused by an irregularity of the nerve which regulates the heartbeat.

The Fairisle Junior School pupil can suffer up to three seizures a week and unfortunately for him and his family, doctors have no idea what triggers them, so he can never be left alone.

When they do happen, his mum is left helpless, unable to do anything to stop them. All she can do is watch and be ready to call an ambulance if it lasts longer than a minute.

Luckily, this has never happened but mum Kirsty is in a constant state of panic, especially at night, worrying when the next one might strike.

She said: “It is heartbreaking being forced to sit and watch him when he is having a fit but there is nothing we can do.

“We just hope that he will grow out of it but the longer it goes on the more I worry about what might happen.”

But Jordan considers himself lucky because he has only had to spend a few days on Southampton General Hospital’s children’s heart unit Ocean Ward and during that time he had a PlayStation at his bed to ward off the boredom.

He was upset that the boy in the next bed did not have a PlayStation at his bed. So he challenged himself to a sponsored silence and has raised £400 for the Families of Ocean Ward charity to make sure every bed on the ward has a computer game for patients to enjoy during their stay in hospital.