Give to GOSH: Meet Marley and friends - 10 great reasons to support our campaign

The seven-year-old's wait for a new heart finally ended this Autumn
Racer: Marley
Glenn Copus

Racing around on his scooter and playing with his superhero characters, Marley looks like any other boy his age. That is until he pulls up his T-shirt to show the scars on his chest from his recent heart transplant.

Marley has spent much of the past three years in hospital after being diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy. His wait for a new heart finally ended in the autumn.

Marley is firm friends with Elliott after they met while living on the same cardiac ward. Like him, Marley was put on a Berlin Heart and spent seven months on the machine before an organ was found.

He recently went home to Barking and Dagenham and is on medication to suppress his immune system.

GOSH Christmas Appeal

These are some of the people from Great Ormond Street Hospital who the Evening Standard will follow during our Christmas Appeal. Every story, from the sick children to the staff dedicated to treating them, gives an insight into the hospital’s life-saving work and how your donations — which Chancellor George Osborne yesterday pledged to double — will help. These include supporting the creation of a heart unit, funding research and supporting patients and parents. We will return to these people as they face new challenges..

After being surrounded by so many friends and constant activity in hospital Marley and his mother Joanne are trying to adjust to the relative isolation of being at home.

But life is edging back towards normality and they are looking forward to the new year when Marley should be able to socialise more.

He hopes to return to school in January and Joanne cannot wait to go back to work. She also wants to fulfil her promise of taking Marley on a trip to Disneyland.

2 Elliott Livingstone, two

In need of a transplant: Elliott Livingstone

The story of Elliott launched our campaign this week. The toddler is living in Great Ormond Street Hospital while he waits for a heart transplant and his cheeky personality brings a smile to everyone who meets him.

He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at two weeks old and fitted with a pacemaker. But earlier this year his health deteriorated and he went on to a Berlin Heart, which is keeping the organ pumping while he waits for a transplant.

Elliott’s mother Candace is living in the hospital’s accommodation for parents and father Adrian commutes at weekends and after work. Every night, they sleep with their mobile phones next to their pillows in case the longed-for telephone call comes telling them there is a heart for Elliott.

3 Professor Martin Elliott

Influenced by F1: Professor Martin Elliott
Great Ormond Street Hospital

The paediatric heart and lung surgeon, 64, is one of the longest-serving doctors at GOSH, leading groundbreaking research and treating thousands of patients for 30 years. His work has bridged the gap between surgery and research, with skills ranging from heart bypass surgery to correcting congenital lung disorders.

4 Faiza Yasin, healthcare assistant

Alex Lentati

The 21-year-old has wanted to work at Great Ormond Street since she was five, and her dream came true after she became a healthcare assistant this month. Faiza spent a lot of her life at GOSH after being born with congenital heart disease and had to undergo five major operations while still a child.

She works on Puffin ward, where children go before they have an operation. She hopes one day to become a cardiac nurse helping children on the same ward where she was treated.

Faiza has been fundraising for the hospital for years and asked for donations instead of presents for her 21st birthday.

5 Lynsey Steele, play specialist

Lynsey Steele
Great Ormond Street Hospital

Lynsey’s big smile and upbeat personality make life more bearable for children living at GOSH. Funded by the charity, she uses play to help children enjoy their time in hospital. She is often found cooking with children or doing art projects with glitter and coloured pens. She uses toys and medical props to explain to patients what they are going through and makes books with them to record their journeys. Parents say she is a huge help to them.

6 Jim Linthicum, chaplain

Spiritual man: GOSH senior chaplain Jim Linthicum
Great Ormond Street Hospital

Time at the hospital provokes fundamental questions about life, death, grief and joy. Jim Linthicum helps guide patients and parents through the experience. The Baltimore-born chaplain visits every ward once a week and the intensive care unit each day. He does baptisms and wedding blessings but is as likely to be seen taking parents for a coffee and chat. He believes everyone is spiritual even if they are not necessarily religious. He is based at the hospital’s glorious St Christopher’s chapel.

7 Amy Willis, 14

Like a lot of teenage girls, Amy carries a smart bag wherever she goes. But hers doesn’t contain make-up or a mobile phone. Instead, there is a battery pack which is keeping her heart working.

Amy is just the fourth teenager in the UK to be fitted with a “heartware” device. She has been on the transplant waiting list since April and the portable pumping unit acts as a bridge, taking the pressure off her heart until an organ becomes available. Crucially, it means she can live a relatively normal life at home.

Amy was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy aged 13 and it is believed a virus may have caused the heart condition. She and her family are coming to terms with how quickly their lives changed. Amy was fitted with the heartware device in April and is recovering from a stroke.

8 Rowan Pethard, seven

Football-mad: Rowan Pethard
Joe Plimmer

Football-mad Spurs fan Rowan had hardly ever been ill, so when at the age of six he started getting coughs, colds, pains in his legs, tonsillitis and an itchy rash his mother Abby knew something was wrong.

In March, Rowan, from Hemel Hempstead, collapsed in the car park of a GP surgery and was taken to Watford General hospital where he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He was immediately transferred to GOSH and given emergency chemotherapy to bring his white blood cell levels down. Next month, he begins two years of “maintenance treatment” and his family has been told he has a nine out of 10 chance of being cured. Abby and husband Steve, 43, want to raise awareness of the condition. They hope life will return to normal in the new year when Rowan goes back to school and hospital trips become less frequent.

9 Ralph Frost, six

Patient Ralph Frost clutches a balloon as he sits on his hospital bed
Johnny Shand Kydd

Ralph is a little boy with a big personality. He is often seen whizzing past nurses on his plastic motorbike and keeps himself up to date with all the news on Eagle ward, where he is living while waiting for a kidney transplant.

At the age of four he was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, meaning his kidneys do not work properly. He has also suffered blood clots and tests have not revealed why. As his kidneys were about to fail they were removed and he is now on dialysis. Next year he will get a new kidney from father Nick, 34, and he has already named it Chase.

He has to endure painful blood tests every day and hours of dialysis, but uses his experience to encourage other children who are having a hard time on his ward.

His mother Amie, 31, sleeps in the hospital but he misses his brother Ted, four, and his father, who visits when he is not working or looking after Ted.

10 Dr Finella Craig and Prof Myra Bluebond-Langner, Louis Dundas Centre

Finella Craig
Great Ormond Street Hospital

Both are from the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care — a world-class centre of research, teaching and practice in palliative care for children. Dr Craig is part of the team providing practical, emotional and medical support to children with life-limiting conditions and their families.

She said: “One of the worst experiences for a family is to witness their child in pain and discomfort and for them to feel totally powerless to do anything about it. Our role is to try to manage the child’s pain and symptoms to enable the child to live as comfortably as possible.”

Myra Bluebond-Langner.
Great Ormond Street Hospital

Professor Bluebond-Langner leads researchers looking to advance clinical practice and policy for children. She said: “Our goal with everything we do is to reduce suffering and make a difference.”

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