A TODDLER who battled back after being starved of oxygen for 28 minutes after he was born has won a Pride of Essex award.

Aiden Mitchell, now aged 17 months, was presented with the Susie Cornell Child of Courage award, which recognises the achievements of deserving children who overcome adversity.

Aiden, from Witham, was not expected to survive as he was unresponsive at birth and did not take his first breath for 28 minutes, leaving him with permanent brain damage.

Despite that, Aiden and his family have raised more than £30,000 for charities after he took part in brain seizure research immediately after his birth.

Mum Fleur Mitchell said: “Aiden has not been formally diagnosed yet as he needs to be a bit older, but it’s likely he has cerebral palsy.

“At the moment he is described as having Hypoxicischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), which just means he was starved of oxygen when he was born.

“He was the first full-term baby to have specialist cooling treatment to stop further brain damage and he took part in research to measure blood flow three times.”

Aiden has raised money for various charities that have helped him, including Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, the Sick Children’s Trust and Action Medical Research, as well as funding some of his own physiotherapy at Brainwave.

Mrs Mitchell said: “Aiden has been going to Brainwave since he was eight months old.

“Since it is so close, we pay extra so Aiden can have regular physiotherapy sessions with them as well as at home. It’s been hugely valuable.”

Aiden’s family will continue with their fundraising efforts to so they can fly out to Los Angeles with him for intensive physiotherapy at the Neurological and Physical Rehabilitation Therapy Centre (Napa).

Mrs Mitchell said: “We found out that Aiden had been nominated in mid-October; the Brainwave charity nominated him so we knew they had put in paperwork.

“We were ecstatic when we found out he had won; we are really chuffed and humbled.

“We didn’t expect him to win.

He’s so young to win, it was incredible; the ceremony was so lovely and heartwarming.”

Aiden attended the awards ceremony at Anglia Ruskin University with his parents, Fleur and Keith, his godmother and staff from the Brainwave charity in Witham.