A COURAGEOUS six-year-old schoolgirl is looking forward to the Christmas that her parents thought she would never see.

Little Skye Wilson, of Kendal, spent weeks fighting for her life before having a heart transplant operation in June.

Parents Graeme and Tra-cey pinned their hopes on finding a donor several times after Skye became seriously ill in April.

They had already said their final goodbyes to their daughter who had dilated cardiomyopathy – a con-dition where the heart becomes weak and enlarged and fails to pump blood properly – after being told to fear the worst by doctors.

But a donor was found and now, six months later, the St Thomas’ School pupil is back in the classroom up to four days a week and is enjoying life and playing with her friends.

Tracey said the family was looking forward to enjoying a quiet family Christmas.

“Skye has made a remarkable recovery in six months,” she said. “We can’t believe it when we look back at the pictures of her and could never have imagined that she would have come this far and that we would be spending Christmas together.

“She is doing really well.

“She is enjoying herself and she loves being back with her friends.

“She has really missed them. She loves to be busy and it is hard for us to get her to rest.

“There is still a long way to go but she is doing well.

“Her body could still reject the heart but that risk is lessening.

“We do lead our life walking on a tight-rope but we have to live life day by day and see how she goes.”

Skye cannot walk far and gets tired easily. “She will never be able to run a marathon but hopefully her legs will get stronger,” said Tracey.

“But she is improving and we never imagined she would have come so far.”

Skye was a carol singer in the school nativity performance of Robin’s Christmas Singalong this month and now the family is looking forward to Skye spending Christmas with her siblings Bryony 18, Bethan, 12, and Cameron, 12.

St Thomas’s head teacher Paul Brown said: “She is back as if she has never been away.

“She is back to the Skye that we all love to bits.”

The family still has to travel to Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital every other week for Skye to see doctors and the family has now embarked on a fund-raising trail to boost funds for the children’s cardiac unit at the hospital.

Skye’s grandmother Renee Frankland raised £250 last month with a coffee morning in her Kendal home and dad Graeme plans to do the Three Peaks in the summer.

Terry Hewitt, liason nurse at the hospital in Newcastle, said: “Skye is doing fantastically well and the family has done really well since Skye went home.

“She has made fantastic progress.”