Last updated at 13:27, Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Baby Lydia Sayle’s bright-eyed smile says all there is to say about the modern miracle of organ donation.

Just a few months ago the now beaming Cumbrian girl had little chance of life.

Her heart was failing; her once healthy, happy disposition was ebbing away.

What a difference a precious gift from across the world and the wonders of intricate heart transplant surgery have made.

Lydia, just 11 months old, is on the road to recovery at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital.

She’s not out of the woods yet – her route to full health will take time – but her cheerful grin tells all who see her, she’s ready for her journey.

Lydia’s ordeal has been torment for her doting parents and a tough challenge for doctors determined to restore the little girl’s future.

But none gave up hope that the international appeal they’d made for the new heart she needed would give her the chance she so desperately deserved.

Now her mum and dad, keenly aware that other patients wait in anguish for similar hope of the recovery transplant can bring, are urging more people to register as donors and to consider the precious value of gifted organs when loved ones have died.

They are devoted ambassadors for the organ donation cause.

One look into little Lydia Rose Sayle’s brightly shining, smiling blue eyes and who wouldn’t be?

First published at 11:21, Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk