Look Beyond The Heart

My name is Nicola and in 1976, I was born with half of heart and at the time, there was no hope for me.

However when I was three months old I was given my first heart op and the doctors said I would live until I was seven years old.  The medication slowed my growth so I was not the same size as children of the same age.  The at the age of four I was sent to Harefield Hospital but sadly at that time they were not doing Transplants on children, so there was nothing they could do for me.

In 1987 I was 11 years old I was only the size of a small five year old it was then I was put on the Transplant waiting list for a Heart and Lung.  On the 17th of September I was given the most wonderful gift anyone could give me and that was a new life which was my new Heart and Lung and I felt so blessed.

Well that was 21 years ago and I have been through some very hard and hurtful time but at the same time, I have had a lot of wonderful adventures, and some lovely and amazing times.

One the most amazing thing that happened in 1998 I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl.

I was the first person in the UK who has had a Transplant to have a baby naturally, which had never been done, so she was my second gift and she has given me so much to life for even more.

Even though I have, had been give the gift of life, I was given Megan, there has been lots of ups and downs that I personally feel it has been to do with the aftercare issue to do with my Transplant that I have found difficult to deal with

I personally feel as a Transplant patient there is not enough help and support for people like myself who have experiences some of the same things that I have in life.  So I have set up this website in the hope to help as many people to become more aware that there are lots of people in need of organs that will not only save their lives but change them.

My main aim is for this website is to be a source of help and support to Adults and Children in a way that suits them best.  As I have found on my path that sometimes the help and support we truly need is hard to find.  Something as simple as just listening to people about their experiences and issues, and when they feel it is too difficult to deal with; we will be here to be of some comfort to you in your hours of need.

Not only am I hoping this website will support many people but I am hoping to raise money so that we can pay for:

1.Counselling

2.Physiotherapy

3.Swimming lesson in a hydrotherapy pool as it helps the lung function to improve

4.Art Therapy

5.Specialised Equipment to able the patient to adapted to their NEW life

6.We would also like to offer to pay for family days out and a lot of Transplant patient have spent a lot of their time in Hospital before there Transplant which sadly means that the family is unable to live together

Over the last year, I have been out talking to lots of people about my Look Beyond The Heart and the aim of why I have set it up.  Not only that I have held many fund raising events with thankful the support of my kind family and friends and most of which I would not of been able to do without their love and support.

Also last year I wrote a children's book.  The reason for this was to help children not only understand Transplantation but to give them some idea as to what they may or may not come up against after their Transplant.

The book is called Look Beyond.  Its about a bear called Alfie Aftercare.  He is a bit of a cheeky bear and is in need of a transplant.  He is blessed and he gets his gift of a  Heart and Lung Transplant.  The book costs £4.00, all the money raised from the sale of the book will go to Look Beyond The Heart we have also had Alfie Aftercare made into a  Teddy bear which cost £4:50.

If you are interested in buying a book or a bear  please eMail me for more information.

As you can see from the website, we are not a Registered Charity as we still have not been able to raise enough funds to register, so we are an unincorporated society until we can raise enough funds to apply.