‘THE Artist’ of darts, PDC World Darts Championship runner-up Kevin Painter, is to play a charity exhibition match in Okehampton to raise money for a hospital ward close to the hearts of a Lewdown family.

Organised by Crystal Jordan and Chris Back, the event will raise money for Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) — a ward which helped their new born baby through a very difficult time.

Chris and Crystal’s son Jax was born on December 12 and weighed only 988g — just over 2lbs — meaning his first few hours were critical.

After overcoming some difficult days, Jax was then diagnosed with sepsis on December 23.

He spent more than two months battling illness in the NICU, but after 66 days he finally become well enough to be taken home by his over-joyed parents.

Crystal said: ‘After spending 66 days in there, and getting to know most of the staff, we finally took our healthy and happy little boy home, weighing 6lb 2oz.

‘With two children at home and an extremly sick baby — the NICU staff made everything as easy as they possibly could for us. The care they gave myself and my family, especially my son, was unquestionable.

‘Since leaving the NICU, the ward has been very highly spoken and thought of by our family and we’d now like to raise some money for them to say thank you and to help them continue to support families like ours.’

The fundraising darts exhibition will be held on Saturday, June 3 at Okehampton’s Charter Hall.

Crystal, who works at the London Inn, said her boss Simon Chudley had managed to secure a special guest appearance from professional darts player Kevin Painter.

Known to many fans of the sport by his nickname ‘The Artist’, Painter was the runner-up in the 2004 PDC World Darts Championship, losing a classic final to darts icon Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor.

Painter’s one major PDC title to date is the Players Championship Finals in 2011. He has also appeared on classic game show Bullseye.

Crystal added that there would be a raffle taking place at the darts exhibition with lots of kindly donated prizes up for grabs. Tickets for the event are available from the London Inn.

All of the money raised will be donated to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’s NICU — which provides crucial care and treatment for very small or unwell babies.