A FORMER X Factor contestant is chopping off his long hair to thank the hospital which saved his baby boy’s life.

Gathan Cheema, from Worcester, who appeared on the talent show in 2012, wanted to pay tribute to medics who saved the life of his son Addison after he had a heart attack at just four months old.

His parents were left terrified and fearing the worst after Addison went cold and turned grey and suffered a heart attack followed by a cardiac arrest.

It happened the day after Addison had planned heart surgery which left him on life support.

Gathan and Addison's mum Katie Rule were warned there was an extremely high chance that Addison would die - and if he did survive then he may suffer various disabilities due to almost certainty of bleeding on the brain and seizures.

But he survived against the odds and, although he is not out of the woods yet and still has severe heart failure, he is now back at his home in St Peter’s and surviving on medication and physiotherapy every day.

Mum Katie Rule, aged 26, described her son as a “true superhero.”

She described the heart wrenching moment he nearly died on May 14, saying: “His heart started beating really fast and then he had a heart attack and his heart stopped beating.

“He went grey and stopped breathing.”

The family say they knew before Addison was born that he had a heart defect and were advised at the 12-week scan to consider termination, as it was unknown if he would survive the pregnancy.

But having spent his seven-months of life between Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, they hope he is now finally on the mend.

Gathan, aged 30, will be donating his chopped hair which he has been growing for five years to the Little Princess Trust, which will allow the charity to make wigs for cancer patients.

The shave will take place on Sunday (August 2) at 8pm, where the ex star will share the head shave event on a Facebook live.

The former contestant Gathan, who was described as a “dark horse” of the competition, appeared on the popular talent show in 2012 where he made it boot camp.

He was whittled down from 300 hopefuls during the four-day boot camp in Liverpool for a place at the judges’ houses in the next stage of the competition.

His performance of Respect by Aretha Franklin earned him a place in the final stages of boot camp but his cover of Maroon 5’s Payphone, did not cut it with the judges.

For donations to support Birmingham Children's Hospital, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/addisoncheema28 or PayPal.me/Addisoncheema