A new heart for baby Rory 'would be incredible'

Six-month-old Rory Fletcher has been in hospital since she was born

The parents of a six-month-old baby girl who is on the waiting list for an urgent heart transplant have made a plea for an organ donor.

Rory Fletcher, of Knutsford, Cheshire, suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy – a condition in which her heart's left ventricle is stretched and enlarged, and cannot pump blood properly.

Baby Rory has been in hospital since she was born and remains in intensive care at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, reliant on a mechanical heart pump while she and her parents wait for a donor heart to become available.

Her mother, Becks, said a new heart for their daughter "would mean everything to us".

Becks, a 31-year-old public relations adviser, added: "We would just be so grateful to the donor family if she had a transplant.

"It's a horrible situation for anyone that loses a child, and not one you ever want to think about.

"But I try to think... if you can come away and turn something negative into something positive for another family, why wouldn't you?"

The new mum is "in ICU with her pretty much all day, every day", and said her daughter's condition has "blown our world apart".

She added: "To get a heart and take Rory home would just be incredible."

Rory's mum hopes a donor coming forward would "turn something negative into a positive"

The UK transplant waiting list has reached record levels, with 8,000 people waiting for a life-saving transplant, figures published by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) reveal.

More than 12,000 people in the UK have died or been removed from the waiting list over the past 10 years before receiving the life-saving organs they needed, NHSBT said.