They wanted something special to represent the hardships endured by their son, who was born at 32 weeks gestation with a collapsed lung and immediately whisked away by doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital to attack a large tumour on his diaphragm.

But Lennox Raphael – a name which means strong, willing and healer of the sick – is now three and, according to Ms Clear, as happy and healthy as any other child his age.

‘‘We found out he was sick when I was 27 weeks pregnant so initially it didn’t really sink in until we went to Melbourne and the specialist there was like ‘Look, we really don’t think your baby’s going to survive and we don’t know what’s wrong’,’’ she said.

‘‘Looking back at it all and reading what I wrote even a few years ago I can’t believe we went through that.

‘‘You don’t ever imagine yourself [that] something like this is going to happen and you realise how precious life is.’’

Lennox spent three months in the Melbourne hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit where his tumour was treated with harsh drugs.

His was the first case in Australia’s medical history where anyone had been found to have a tumour in that area and just the third recorded in the world.

The emotional rollercoaster did not slow down. At just 14 days old he went into cardiac failure and in his 34th week of gestation started chemotherapy.

For months after his return to Launceston Lennox was in and out of hospital then at 18 months he returned to Melbourne for open heart surgery.

Little Lennox still attends annual check-ups to monitor his progress, but Ms Clear said the outlook was positive.

‘‘He’s great – he’s growing, doing all the right things and meeting his milestones,’’ she said.

‘‘Physically he’s a little bit behind but mentally he’s on par with any other three year old.’’

Ms Clear spoke ahead of Sunday’s Sweetheart Day, the national awareness day for HeartKids, an Australian charity which supports people affected by childhood heart disease.

For more information visit sweetheartday.org.au.