Our Heart Hero and Ambassador Kaylee

During Heart Month we’d like to shine a spotlight on our Heart Hero and Ambassador Kaylee – Ann Davidson-Olley.

My story:

In 1987 I became the first baby in the UK to have a Heart Transplant at Newcastle Freeman Hospital. I was born in April, completely normal & a happy baby until I was 4 months old, when I was admitted to hospital in what seemed on the surface to be a Meningitis scare. 

However, cut a long story very short & umpteen tests later, my Diagnosis came back with Dilated Cardiomyopathy. We didn’t have many options back in 1987 as Paediatric Transplantation was so new. Only two had survived in the USA at the time, however Freeman & my medical team had taken a chance on me ; A 5 month old baby, who was in desperate need for her life to be saved.

After a 6 week wait. I had my Heart Transplant on the 14th if October 1987. 38 years later this year, I’m one of the longest surviving baby in the world to conquer this huge life changing operation. This gives me so much hope in medicine & future transplantation.  

Heart month & what it means to me. 

A heart is your main organ that keeps you alive, other then your brain. It’s one of the most important organs of your body.  Your heart is what makes you flow in day to day life. It’s what keeps you functioning. It’s also about listening to your body & guarding it from the inevitable. My Heart is more then just an organ to me, it’s my super hero & it should be the same for you. 

Also Heart month is about, raising as much awareness for HD & CHD because without research we certainly wouldn’t be living longer. It’s one of the precious organs in out body. 

CCF & what it means to me…

CCF has been a huge part of my life for the past two years. I volunteer every Wednesday on my Toy Section in the shop and support as many fundraising events as I can with a tremendous team.  Meeting the families has always been a humbling experience, it certainly puts things in prospective in the grand scheme of things of our normal day to day lives. Every parent out there, would do anything for their child not to suffer and at CCF we support those family’s all over the UK with financial support. We take away that financial burden, so the parents can focus on their child. At CCF it brings with love, passionate people who strive to help these children & families in need. And therefore, I am very proud and find our team very admirable for all the efforts, they put in each and every year.