A CHARITY set up following a life-saving heart transplant almost 20 years ago is continuing to raise funds for the children’s hospital which carried out the operation.
Dr Neil Maclachlan set up the Love Hearts Appeal in 2011, five years after his daughter Catherine – now 34 – received her new heart at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Over the past 14 years, the charity has raised close to £500,000 and the latest phase of its support for Great Ormond Street involves funding for ground-breaking research into a post-transplant condition that can be life-threatening.
Love Hearts is funding the salary of a paediatric cardiologist who is working towards a PhD based on the research into Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy, which occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the new heart post-transplant, causing inflammation and narrowing of the blood vessels.
The condition reduces blood flow to the heart muscle, making it harder for the organ to function properly, and potentially leading to heart failure.
The study is focused on a child’s so-called “T-cells”, which can potentially be used to balance their immune response to the new heart.
Dr Maclachlan, a retired gynaecology consultant, said the appeal was to continue giving back to Great Ormond Street, which continues to treat sick children from Jersey who need specialist treatment in the UK.
“Any very sick child from Jersey with a heart condition could well end up there,” he said. “We’re very lucky, because there are really only two paediatric units that do heart transplants in the UK, Newcastle and Great Ormond Street and Jersey ‘feeds’ into Great Ormond Street.
“We perhaps take it for granted and and I think giving back something to these tertiary centres is important.”
The research project, for which the Jersey charity is paying the salary of cardiologist Dr Apoorva Aiyengar for three years, was co-founded by Professor Mike Burch, who was the doctor responsible for Catherine Maclachlan’s transplant in 2006.
Prior to the current project, the charity raised over £100,000 for a paediatric intensive care cubicle, which is used daily by sick children at Great Ormond Street.
Dr Maclachlan also aims to channel further funds that have been raised to support new research into how hearts can be restarted in a box and perfused with the donor’s blood until it is transplanted into the child.
He also paid tribute to the support from Islanders across the past 14 years.
“It’s really important to update people, because they’ve given a lot of money and have done a lot of hard work in various activities and fundraising events, and we want them to know where their money is going,” he said.
More information is available at gosh.org/get-involved/philanthropy/how-you-can-support-us/love-hearts-appeal
