Wearside transplant heroes Bea and Kayleigh to meet for the first time

Two heart transplant heroes will meet for the first ever time - on the day they spearhead a new organ donation campaign.

Beatrix Archbold, 3, and Kayleigh Llewellyn, 16, both know what it is like to endure life or death battles.

The gift of life

Kayleigh, from Seaham, received a new heart four years ago and spent 102 days in hospital.

Brave Beatrix, whose mam Cheryl is from Roker, was in hospital for 14 months attached to a machine which acted as her heart before finally getting her own gift of life last summer.

Now the girls, as well as their families, are teaming up to launch a campaign at the end of this month to spread the word about organ donation.

And for Kayleigh it will be the first ever time she has publicly told her own story.

'It is such an incredibly brave legacy'

The new awareness campaign will be called Hero Inside and will use the stories of those who have experienced an aspect of organ donation.

The aim is to get more people to consider signing the organ donor register.

Beatrix and Kayleigh's families will be joined by another family from Yorkshire whose son died and donated organs to save others.

Beatrix's dad Terry said: "I am setting up an awareness group called Hero Inside and that element of it will go out to the public and promote organ donation through the lived experience of people such as myself and Bea, and Kayleigh and her family."

The launch day, though, will come first and will feature pop-up stands and banners that people can view, as well as speaking to the families at the Discovery Museum.

More details are expected soon.

'Bea is proof of the life that can ripple outwards from loss'

'I will never have sufficient words for the gratitude I feel for the donor and their family that saved Bea's life, " said Terry.

'Bea is proof of the life that can ripple outwards from loss. From the darkest of moments, light."

Three-year-old Beatrix calls her new organ her 'special heart'.

"It is her hero inside' said Terry.

'Kayleigh is excited to tell her story'

The launch of the new campaign will be held at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle but the two families spoke to the Echo ahead of the big day.

Kayleigh's dad Shaun Sidney said: "She is excited to tell people her story after the journey she has been on. She feels it is a privilege and we are excited to meet Bea and her family.

"This is the first time that Kayleigh has gone public to speak to people and she is trying to educate people about organ donation."

Beatrix's story;

Beatrix's story first unfolded in May 2022. The Archbold family, who live in Burnopfield, had returned from a trip to Disney World in Florida and thought Beatrix caught Covid. She had stopped drinking, had a rash on her neck and the family dialled 111.

After going to A&E, a doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead detected a heart murmur. Tests showed one side of her heart was enlarged and not functioning properly.

She had an operation to fit a line into her body so she could receive medication but she had a cardiac arrest and was saved by expert surgeons at the Freeman Hospital who performed open heart surgery.

Beatrix spent months in hospital where she learned to walk and said her first words.

It was in June of last year that the Sunderland Echo reported the joyful moment when mum Cheryl, from Roker, and dad Terry, told their daughter that she was going to have a heart transplant. Kayleigh's story; Kayleigh's dramatic journey began in 2019. She had become unwell suddenly, after waking up for school complaining that she was struggling to breathe.

Parents Shaun Sidney and Sonia Llewellyn initially thought it was asthma, but when she woke up the following day with a sore chest they took her to Sunderland Royal Hospital.

There, medics found that Kayleigh’s heart rate was too high and she was sent to the Freeman.

Kayleigh had her transplant in November 2019 but only came home in January 2020 after 102 days in hospital. To find out more about the organ donor register, visit: www.organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or use the NHS app.

To get the latest updates on the Hero Inside campaign, visit https://www.facebook.com/BeatrixHeart22