Huge day as Wearside heart transplant toddler starts at kindergarten

What a difference a year has made Wearside toddler Beatrix Archbold.

The brave three-year-old spent her first day at kindergarten this week and loved it.

‘We wondered if she would ever come home’

This time last year, she was attached to a machine which was keeping her alive at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

It was in June last year when she finally got the heart transplant that dad Terry and mum Cheryl, from Roker, had hoped for.

Terry told the Echo: “A year ago, Bea had already spent a year in hospital and we were wondering whether she was ever going to come home.

‘Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves’

“To look at her now - going to kindergarten and sitting at home eating ice cream and watching Paw Patrol - you would not know any of that happened.

“Sometimes you have to pinch yourself.”

Beatrix is going to an outdoor forest school three half days a week while she settles in.

“She came home after the first day with some paintings that she did,” said Terry.

“She had been playing in the mud kitchen and gathering firewood.”

Two girls with the same powerful message

Another big day beckons for Beatrix and fellow heart transplant recipient Kayleigh Llewellyn, 16.

They have been chosen to hand out trophies to the winners of a mascot race at an event called Siren Fest in Ingleby Barwick next month.

The two girls are spearheading an organ donation awareness campaign called Hero Inside.

More families are coming forward

Terry said: “We have been asked by the NHS to take the Hero Inside campaign message there.

“Around 5,000 people are expected through the doors and it’s a great chance to raise awareness of organ donation.” Kayleigh, from Seaham, received a new heart four years ago and spent 102 days in hospital.

Her dad, Shaun Sidney, said: “She is doing really well. She is studying hard at college and looking for a part-time job.”

Making such a difference to organ donation

Kayleigh has also started speaking at events about her own experiences as a heart transplant patient and Beatrix’s dad Terry said: “That is massive. More families are coming forward to hear the stories being told in the Hero Inside campaign.

“And to have Kayleigh there saying ‘I am a heart recipient and I am here now’ is a hugely powerful message.”

Beatrix’s own story unfolded in May 2022.

The Archbold family 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.

Then came a 14 month wait for a new heart.

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.

Find out more about organ donation

Kayleigh had her transplant in November 2019 but only came home in January 2020 after 102 days in hospital.

People are being urged to confirm their organ donation decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Anthony Clarkson, Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "We urge everyone who supports organ donation to confirm their decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register. It is a simple action which only takes two minutes; but can ultimately save lives.”

Visit: www.organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or use the NHS app.