Amy Willis, the teenager whose handbag keeps her alive

'My friends just think my Heartware part of me'

(Lucy Young)

While most teenage girls clutch bright handbags packed with make-up, Amy Willis carries a discreet black medical bag everywhere she goes.

It contains the cutting-edge Heartware device that is keeping her alive.

A smaller, more advanced version of the Berlin artificial heart, it was fitted in April after she was emergency airlifted to GOSH from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.

The device means that 14-year-old Amy can be home in Flintshire this Christmas while remaining on the heart transplant waiting list.

"My friends just think my Heartware part of me, and my teachers all know how it works and what to do if there is a problem," she says, as she holds up the tablet-bag sized device during a check-up visit to GOSH.

Amy is doing well, but as many as 15 per cent of patients with a Heatware device or Berlin heart die while waiting for transplant, so money raised by the Give to GOSH appeal will also go to help research staff identify ways to keep children alive for longer while they await transplant.

To Give to GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1Mydxqt

To find out more about our appeal and why we're supporting GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1MycZkr

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