Toddler Oliver Diaper, who has a serious heart condition, with grandmother Rosemary Duffy.BRAVE little two-year-old Oliver Diaper is nothing short of remarkable.

For most of us, suffering from a rare heart condition, a partially collapsed lung and a hole in the heart would be unthinkable - but for this Salisbury tot, life goes on.

Oliver was born with a rare heart condition known as congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, which means the two ventricles pumping blood round his body are in the wrong place.

As a result, the ventricle that normally pumps blood to all the major organs is only pumping to the lungs and the remaining ventricle is left to do all the hard work.

Doctors diagnosed Oliver's condition when he was about 14 months old, several months after he had suffered repeated chest infections and severe sickness.

In April last year, his mother, Joanne, took her son to see specialists at Salisbury District Hospital after he became ill with a viral infection.

Within a week, he had been referred to the specialist cardiac unit at Southampton General Hospital and is now under the watchful eye of Dr James Gnanapragasam.

For Joanne (40) and husband Barry (38), of Hulse Road, it has been a worrying time. Joanne said: "It is lucky Oliver got these chest infections, otherwise it might never have been diagnosed.

"Now everything is going as it should and he is pretty strong.

"It has been horrendous but, to look at him, you wouldn't really know that there was anything wrong."

Oliver has undergone two procedures to prepare his heart for major surgery next year.

Surgeons at Southampton General Hospital have twice performed an operation known as 'banding', where they put a silk thread around the youngster's artery that leads to his lungs - making it harder for the blood to pump through and thus forcing the muscle to work harder.

The procedure did not work at first attempt last November but, after a second attempt in February, surgeons are now confident that it is effective.

When the toddler's muscles are strong enough, he will have a double switch operation, where surgeons will swap the aorta and pulmonary arteries over and mend the hole in the heart.

Oliver's grandmother, Rosemary Duffy (63), said: "He has been very brave and nothing ever gets him down.

"The staff in Southampton and Salisbury have been absolutely marvellous."

Oliver has to make monthly trips to see Dr Gnanapragasam and has daily doses of drugs to ensure he stays healthy.

After his operation next year, he will be fitted with a pacemaker and could be on medication for the rest of his life.