Sunderland mum, 37, dies less than a year after having successful heart transplant surgery

Battling Becky Timby, 37, died at her Sunderland home earlier this month having taken unwell.

Becky, mum to 11-year-old daughter Brooke, was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory condition IgG4 several years ago and despite treatment was later told she had giant cell myocarditis, a disease which affects the muscles around the heart.

Medics at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital told Becky and her partner Brian Priest, 39, that she needed a life-saving transplant after her condition began to deteriorate at the beginning of this year.

“They put her on a super urgent list and thankfully a donor was found,” said Brian, a car sales executive for Toyota.

“She went down for the surgery at 11pm and was back at 7am with everything having gone well.”

After a couple of months of rehabilitation in the hospital, Becky, now looking different because of the treatment she had been given, was allowed to return to her Hill View home.

But sadly on Friday, November 16, Becky, who had worked as a dispenser in a chemist before her health problems, came home from a shopping trip and began to feel unwell.

“She called my sister Kimberley who came around to see her and then she just collapsed,” added Brian.

“Two ambulances came and the paramedics were doing CPR on her for around 40 minutes in total.

“There was a little bit of hope that she could be taken into the Freeman because at one point she was breathing again, but then they realised there was nothing they could do.

“It’s keeping us going that she did not suffer a long bout of pain before she died.”

Brian has thanked the countless friends who have offered their condolences to him following Becky’s death.

“The amount of people that have been to see me or sent flowers and cards or even put tributes on social media is amazing,” he said.

“She’ll be a big miss to so many people because she was the life and soul of the party.

“We thought once her transplant was done and everything was OK, she’d be able to have a normal life but it’s just one of those things that we have to accept.

“We were making plans for the future, things like going to Florida on holiday, which we’ll never do together now.

“But we have taken as many positives from Becky’s life as we possibly can and that’s helping us a lot.”

Becky’s funeral is due to take place at Sunderland Crematorium on Monday, December 3, from 10.30am to 11.30am, followed by a wake at The Alexandra at Grangetown. Family flowers only.

“Becky was so popular so we’re expecting a massive turnout,” said Brian.

“Because of the care she’d had from the Freeman she wanted to give something back to them so anyone wanting to donate money can do so to intensive care unit as we’ll be having collections at the funeral.”