BIRTHDAY celebrations and a wedding have helped compensate for a nightmare Christmas in the Jones household.Bonny babe Matthew Jones will mark his first birthday on Saturday safely at home with his family in North Walsham Road, Trunch - after spending Christmas seriously ill in hospital.

BIRTHDAY celebrations and a wedding have helped compensate for a nightmare Christmas in the Jones household.

Bonny babe Matthew Jones will mark his first birthday on Saturday safely at home with his family in North Walsham Road, Trunch - after spending Christmas seriously ill in hospital.

Mum and dad Emma and Tim were so impressed with the care their son received during a 10-day stay at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital that they wanted to show their gratitude.

So the couple asked for donations instead of gifts when they married last month and have presented the £520 collected to the hospital's Buxton ward for children.

Mrs Jones, 32, took Matthew to see their GP at 4.30pm on December 18 because he had a heavy cold, a hacking cough and wasn't feeding.

“The doctor said he was a very poorly little boy and needed to be in hospital,” she recalled.

“By 6.30pm I was at the Norfolk and Norwich with him. I was absolutely numb. It was a traumatic evening”

Tests showed that Matthew was suffering from bronchiolitis. He had to have a tube inside his nose to give him oxygen, and another into his stomach through which he was fed.

Mrs Jones stayed on the ward with Matthew throughout his time there, making friends with several other mums whose babies had the same condition.

When Christmas Day arrived Matthew was no better. Mr Jones and their four-year-old daughter Hannah had to keep away from the hospital as both were suffering with bad colds.

But staff tried to make life on the ward as festive as possible. “They were a really cracking lot and they all made such an effort,” said Mrs Jones.

“There was a little stocking on the bottom of each cot, carol singers came round on Christmas Eve and Father Christmas came round on Christmas Day - but it wasn't exactly the first Christmas with Matthew we had planned!”

Matthew was finally well enough to return home with his mum on December 28 where they found all their unwrapped presents waiting for them. The family eventually celebrated their postponed Christmas on New Year's Day.

All four Joneses were in good health for Emma and Tim's wedding, at Trunch Methodist Chapel on June 14.

“We had lived together for 10 years so we certainly didn't need anyone to buy us a toaster,” said Tim, 40, who works in North Walsham's Sainsbury's supermarket.

“We thought raising money for the ward would be a nice way of recognising something that helps local children. You hear lots of negative things about the health service but they did a very good job for us.”

And Mrs Jones added: “The nurses were such a lovely bunch. They really helped me through it.”