Zariah goes home with her new heart

“Everyone is really pleased with how her recovery is progressing, especially as the transplant was very high risk.”

Zariah was born with a common umbilical hernia and was on her way to a routine hospital appointment in Wishaw early last year when she began to vomit and breathe erratically.

She was taken to A&E, where a scan revealed she had a serious heart problem, dilated cardiomyopathy.

Leeander said: “Her heart was significantly enlarged and she was in danger. Zariah had been battling this condition since she was born, and I’d had no idea.

“Her body had been trying to adapt, working so hard all this time, but it was running out of steam.”

A few weeks later, Leeander was given the devastating news that Zariah, then six months old, had end-stage heart failure.

She was transferred to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, who specialise in paediatric heart conditions.

Leeander was given accommodation at The Sick Children’s Trust’s Scott House, just a few minutes’ walk from the hospital, as they spent months waiting for a transplant.

Leeander admitted when she finally got the amazing news that a heart had been found for her baby girl, she was in shock.

She said: “We had been waiting so long for a heart to become available that I didn’t believe it at first.”

On January 21, Leeander and Zariah appeared on BBC1’s Lifeline charity appeal with actor Michael Crawford CBE on behalf of The Sick Children’s Trust.

The next day, the smiling wee tot was finally discharged from hospital.

Leeander said: “I’m just so glad she got her heart. I can’t thank the team at Freeman Hospital enough for saving my girl’s life.”