A six-year-old boy who was born prematurely in Kingston has helped raise over £21,000 for a new incubator at Kingston Hospital.

As the Comet previously reported, Dhillon Manku set himself the goal of raising enough money for a new incubator at the hospital's maternity unit 18 months ago.

On Thursday (May 14), Kingston Hospital revealed he had smashed his target in just a year and a half, with the money to go to the Born Too Soon charity that supports the Neonatal Unit at the Hospital.

Dhillon was born prematurely at Kingston Hospital in 2013 to parents Jas and Sharn, and cared for by the Neonatal Unit team.

When he was old enough to understand that he himself was born prematurely he decided he wanted to buy an incubator to look after babies just like himself.

Dhillon still had £5,000 to go when lockdown was announced, and he had to come up with new ways to spread the word about the fundraiser after his previous efforts that included a sponsored swim.

He contacted the Kamani family, who are the founders of ‘Pretty Little Thing’ and ‘Boohoo’, as he liked their colourful designs.

The resourceful six-year-old pitched with a video to the Kamani family over Instagram directly.

"To his amazement he received a message from one of the owners, Aisha Kamani, praising Dhillon on his work and how much they loved his presentation.

"She then proceeded to tell Dhillon that they will donate the rest of the money he needed for the incubator, and true to their word he has reached his target of £21,000," Kingston Hospital described.

On his remarkable fundraising journey over the last 18 months, Dhillon's ingenuity helped raise thousands from a number of prominent sources including Metro Bank, Starbucks, Singing Dentist, DadvGirls, Peter Andre, Dr Ranj and Jay Sean.