On Sunday 28th May I will be taking part in the RideLondon-Essex 100 and I feeling a little nervous as I have not had the chance to train as much as I had hoped... Those 100 miles are going to be tough! I am participating in this challenge in order to raise money for the latest Love Hearts Appeal project! 

In 2021, there was a huge breakthrough that everyone had been waiting for when a new transplant technique, called Donation after Circulatory Death, was made available for children. 

For the first time ever, using a portable organ perfusion system called the TransMedics heart Organ Care System (OCS) the technique has been made available for children. Since launching the DCD programme at GOSH in 2021, the team have already performed nine successful DCD heart transplants from adult donors, into older children. 

In order to make heart transplantation more accessible to these children, the Love Hearts Appeal is raising funds to enable GOSH Charity to fund a new machine which we hope will be capable of handling smaller hearts for children under 20kg – this machine is called the mOrgan.

Dr Jacob Simmonds from GOSH and the team at Royal Papworth Hospital are continuing the pre-clinical trial to check the safety and efficacy of the mOrgan. If successful, the mOrgan could be a ground-breaking step in increasing the number of hearts available to younger children and increase the number of successful heart transplants to save more young lives.

As of December 2021, there are currently 45 children waiting for a life-saving heart transplant. That means there are 45 families waiting for that all-important phone call that could change everything. The thought of a child waiting desperately for a new heart is almost too much to bear. But sadly, there are families in this position every day and the search for a suitable donor heart is a painstaking one; one that doesn’t always have a happy ending. 

Dr Jacob Simmonds says: “Last year, the DCD heart programme was a game-changer in making more hearts available for eligible children, but we still want to go further. Thanks to the funding from the Love Hearts Appeal, we have now been able to create a pioneering new piece of equipment that could make more donor hearts available for smaller children. The mOrgan is currently going through its pre-clinical trial stage and, if successful, could be a ground-breaking step closer to the day that every child gets the life-saving heart transplant they so desperately need.”

I am hoping to raise £500 for the mOrgan research project, which is in development. Should the project not go ahead, any funds raised towards this appeal or exceeding this amount will go towards the Love Hearts Appeal supporting cardiac projects at GOSH. 

By supporting the Love Hearts Appeal, you’ll be helping support seriously ill children and their families from across the UK when they need it most. Thank you so much for your support. 

Neil x