A Carshalton mum has launched a fundraising campaign in a race against time for her son to get vital hearing implants before his upcoming birthday.

Little Benjamin Wayne, three, needs cochlear hearing implants after NHS England’s individual funding request (IFR) team rejected the proposals in October last year, despite appeals to the decision by St Thomas Hearing Implant Centre.

Now mum-of-three Joanna Wayne, 31, of Strawberry Lane, is fundraising £80,000 for Benji’s ‘magic ears’ before he turns four on June 29.

She said: “The team appealed by saying, ‘Look this is really urgent’, because there is a small window of time before the age of five where he can develop language and after that it’s kind of basically, that window closes.

“You can’t really learn new language anymore, what you have is what you have and that’s it. They said we need to implant him right now whilst he is young enough to still be able to develop speech because that window is kind of rapidly closing.

“So we can’t wait. Yeah he could be implanted [after turning five] but it’ll mean that he probably won’t ever develop spoken language and we’re not prepared [to let that happen].

“If Ben had these cochlear implants it would completely change his life. And it’s guaranteed to as well. It’s not an experimental thing, it’s not like it might work or it might not, it definitely will work and it definitely will change his life.”

Benjamin was born with Connexin 26, which is said to be a common cause for hearing loss, and despite being fitted with hearing aids at a month old he was ‘not getting sufficient access to sound’.

A letter sent on November 9 by Catherine Max, panel chair on behalf of the national IFR panel, and seen by Sutton Guardian said the request should not be funded.

Some of the reasons included evidence submitted was ‘not robust enough’ and Ben’s ability to benefit is ‘not exceptional’ compared to others with a similar condition.

An NHS spokeswoman said: “The NHS funds cochlear implants for patients that NICE have said will benefit the most.

"Doctors can apply for funding for individuals not covered by the guidance, but to ensure we are treating all patients fairly, they have to provide very strong clinical evidence to show why their patient should have access to a treatment that others do not.”

The NHS has an IFR policy for when a consultant feels their patient should receive funding for treatment which is not often provided by them or when the individual involved does not meet the criteria, dependent on the commissioning policy or NICE guideline.

More than £12,000 has been raised by nearly 160 donors since the campaign started on February 9 at the time of writing.

To see the fundraising page, click here.