A HAMPSHIRE family that was dealt a double dose of heartache has become the face of a national campaign.

The Davidsons from Sarisbury Green have been chosen to be the faces of Cystic Fibrosis Week to help other families come to terms with the life-threatening disease.

Two years ago the Daily Echo reported how their lives came crashing down around them as doctors revealed on the same day that both their newborn baby and their two-year-old son had cystic fibrosis.

Since then the family have had to learn to live with the disease and the daily treatment regime that includes the boys taking 35 to 40 tablets a day each, as well as doing physiotherapy.

Now both boys are doing well, with four-year-old James impressing his teachers at school and two-year-old George excelling in the swimming pool.

Mum Sophie said: “Within 24 hours our whole world had changed. James had been an ill baby, very wheezy and had struggled to put weight on.

“I’d been to the doctors a few times and then he caught pneumonia. A day later we were told about George’s results and then both our children were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

“It was such a shock, we didn’t really know what it was or what it meant and it was such a difficult time while we tried to accept the diagnosis.

“We’re just trying to be practical and get on with day-to-day life now. Sometimes it is hard to make the children understand why they have to do their treatment but we’ve just got to help them learn about cystic fibrosis as best we can.”

The family will appear alongside other families chosen to front the Cystic Fibrosis Week campaign, which was launched yesterday.