21 operations and titanium rods in his back but Jaden has heart of athlete

Ten year old Jaden Movold. Photo / Peter Meechum

We need you to help us to Help Our Kids. The Herald is running a major campaign to try and raise at least $150,000 for our national children’s hospital, Starship. Each year, more than 9000 Kiwi kids from right throughout the country are treated in Starship’s theatres. Now it’s our turn to help the hospital and staff that Help Our Kids.

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With the help of the Starship children's hospital, 10-year-old Jaden Movold dreams of one day becoming a Paralympic athlete.

"I want to be in the Paralympics and do swimming, because swimming is my passion. My favourite stroke is freestyle," says the confident, outgoing Aucklander who was born with more than 12 medical conditions.

These include spina bifida, excess fluid on the brain, scoliosis (an abnormal curvature of the spine), a cyst in the spinal cord, kidneys that are joined together, abnormalities of the lower intestines, and mild learning disabilities. His lower limbs are paralysed and he gets around in a wheelchair.

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Jaden has had 21 big operations - mostly at Starship - including the enclosure of his spinal cord which was exposed at birth, reconstruction of his lower intestines, and the installation of titanium rods to help straighten his back.

"Most of his surgeries in the last few years have been to do with the rods," says Jaden's mother Lise Baldwin. "He's still growing so they have to lengthen the rods ... because he is so active, he wears them out and they break."

As well as swimming, Jaden has skied, surfed, plays wheelchair basketball and tennis, and dances.

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Aged 6 he performed a break-dance with StarJam, a performance group for people with disabilities. An online video of his dance (see below) became so popular that he raised $6000 for the organisation, which was rewarded by his being flown to Las Vegas to meet Justin Timberlake.

Helping charities comes naturally to Jaden: he has raised money for the Starship Foundation several times and is an ambassador for the YES Disability Resource Centre.

Jaden is also a regular at the Weet-Bix Tryathlons, having participated in nine, including five last year. For the cycling event he uses a special hand-cycle sponsored by Sanitarium.

Ms Baldwin praises Starship staff for their devotion to making Jaden as comfortable as they can and for seeing past his disabilities.

She says Jaden is a happy-go-lucky boy, but as he's grown older and become aware of the operations being done on him he has developed anxieties about surgery and an understandable dislike of anaesthetic gas masks and needles.

"He tries to negotiate with staff and procrastinate. He's a very bright child and will try anything to get out of it."

Efforts to deal with this include, in his latest operation, putting the initial anaesthetic into his foot - where he has very little sensation - with an ultrasound-guided needle.

"He's got a team that see his potential. Rather than just a kid with problems they see him as an athlete who wants to take on the world."

She asks people to consider donating to the Help Our Kids campaign.

"If they are able to upgrade the operating theatres, more kids can be seen and kids will get off the waiting list. For spinal surgery Jaden had to wait a long time and you need it the next day; you cannot wait."

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