Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Transplants don’t just change lives, they transform them’

Sadie Merrin
Sadie Merrin

She required a heart transplant when she was just seven years old.

But this week, north-east youngster Sadie Merrin will highlight the remarkable progress she has made during the past four years when she competes in the British Transplant Games in Lanarkshire.

The Elgin youngster, who is now 11 and a pupil at West End primary school, was born with dilated cardiomyopathy and had to wait a long time to find an organ donor.

It wasn’t until New Year’s Eve on 2012 that she finally received the operation at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital which has transformed her life.

Her mother, Karen, said yesterday: “We have been very fortunate and Sadie has gone from strength to strength since her transplant.

“On the whole, she does the same… No sorry, more than most of her peers but she does get fairly frequent tummy bugs that sometimes require an overnight stay in hospital.

“However, she gets her bloods checked every six weeks and we travel down to to Newcastle every 12 weeks for clinic checks.”

Following their daughter’s successful operation, the Merrins organised a charity initiative, the Braveheart Ball, at the Thainstone centre in Inverurie, which raised more than £41,000 for the Children’s Hospital Unit Fund.

And Mrs Merrin said: “We are planning another event for next year, with the proceeds going both to CHUF and the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.”

Sadie will be among more than 750 participants at the games, which will be staged in several sports, across a variety of venues, including Ravenscraig, from Friday onwards.

Mrs Merrin added: “This is our first transplant games and we are very excited to be taking part. We have been thinking about getting involved since the transplant, but we always felt it would be a huge commitment.

“However, this year, with it being slightly closer to home, we felt we had to go for it. Sadie has entered the front crawl swim, the 50m sprint, long jump, badminton, sports hall athletics and the donor run.

“Sadly, there is not a cheerleading event at the games. Sadie is a competitive cheerleader and she trains for five hours every week. She competed at three national competitions this year, achieving two second places, a third and a fifth.

“Sadie could never have trained for five minutes a week, never mind five hours, before she had her transplant. So the reality is that transplants don’t just change lives, they transform them.”

Mrs Merrin and her husband, Andrew, will travel to the event with Sadie on Thursday.