a jump for joy... from 13,000 feet BRAVE toddler Max Price is doing so well, his dad is going to jump out of an aeroplane.

Shaun Price is doing a 13,000-feet skydive to raise funds for the kidney unit that treats his little boy Max, aged two.

Max, from Southview Road, Weymouth, suffers from chronic renal failure and is waiting for a kidney transplant.

But he has mystified doctors by defying his illness so well over the last year that his mum Michelle says he has been ‘a miracle’.

And his spell of good health has meant Shaun has had time to arrange his parachute jump for the kidney unit at Southampton General Hospital.

Plumber Shaun, 30, said: “I’ve always wanted to do it and I’m really looking forward to it.

“I was going to do it before but with everything going on with Max and going up and down to hospital I didn’t have the chance.

“But now with Max being stable we’ve got it sorted.”

On September 18, Shaun will be among a group of seven carrying out tandem jumps above fields near Salisbury.

They will arrive at the airfield for training and get in their plane to jump out attached to a professional skydiver that same day.

The fundraisers include relatives of other patients and staff members from the G4 Children’s ward treatment room.

Shaun said Max has been a revelation since he suffered peritonitis and doctors started a trial period without daily dialysis.

He said: “Max should not be well enough to be running about and have the energy that he has.

“He surprises people.

“He beats all odds and it’s always worked out that way.”

Max’s mum Michelle says they have been able to savour the time as a family with Max and their other children Chloe, 12, Jack, 10, and Kacey, six.

She said: “He is just an absolute miracle and an inspiration.

“People ask how he is and we tell them he’s absolutely fine.”

Michelle is also overjoyed to be looking ahead to Max starting at the Allsorts Pre-school at Beechcroft Primary School.

She said: “It’s a milestone we didn’t know we were going to get to.

“He’s going to a mainstream school and that’s just amazing.”

“The biggest problem is getting a school uniform as he’s still only in six to nine months clothes as he’s so small.”

Shaun is doing his tandem skydive for the G4 Children’s ward’s treatment rooms at Southampton Hospital.

Staff and patients’ families are raising the money to provide staff with more work space and storage facilities for making up the children’s medicines.

The money will also be spent to make the unit a more child friendly environment.

Max’s chronic renal failure has meant that his kidneys have functioned at less than five per cent.

On his second birthday, at the start of this year, his illness meant he was being physically sick every day and could not eat his birthday cake.

Max’s mum Michelle is still hoping to donate one of her kidneys. The family could also get a call at any time about a donor.

The third option is Shaun donating a kidney for another patient if there is a donor whose kidney would be suitable for Max. Michelle praised the staff and the ward at Southampton.

She said: “If it was not for them there’s no doubt Max would not be here.”

To make a donation go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ShaunPrice or call Michelle and Shaun on 01305 786103.