THE mother of a six-year-old Kendal girl who had a life-saving heart operation a year ago has now been told she may also need a transplant.

Tracey Wilson, 41, of Hallgarth Circle, has spoken of her trauma at discovering she is suffering from the same heart condition that struck down her daugh-ter, Skye, last June.

Little Skye’s parents had been told by doctors to say their final good-byes to the St Thomas’s School pupil, who had dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart becomes enlarged and fails to pump blood properly.

A donor was found just in time and Skye under-went a successful heart transplant operation at Newcastle’s Freeman Hos-pital a year ago.

But after doctors ran tests on other family members in June it was revealed that Mrs Wilson also has cardiomyopothy and her heart function has decreased by 25 per cent.

“After the fear and worry of coming so close to losing Skye, I just couldn’t believe that this has happened again. We didn’t know the disease was in the family and it’s been horrendous news. A year ago we were just like any other family,” said Mrs Wilson.

She cannot go on a transplant waiting list for a new heart yet because there is a national shortage of donors.

“Only when I am so ill I might die will the doctors start looking for a heart for me. Skye was never on a waiting list, she was put on a Berlin heart – a mechanical pump which takes over heart function to keep a patient alive – but in the end it was just a case of her being so ill that a transplant was the only option.”

She added: “If there were more donors out there people with this condition wouldn’t have to suffer so much first. This is why I am asking Gazette readers to take just a few seconds to sign up to the register.”

While Mrs Wilson is managing her illness with medication, she is preparing herself for a future in which she might not be around to look after her children.

“In my case the doctors don’t think my heart will get better but the medication I am on now might keep the disease at bay.

“The worst thing with cardiomyopathy is the uncertainty and the fact that doctors can’t give me an exact prognosis. They have told me that I might go downhill at any time.

“What’s in my mind all the time is that Skye went from being a healthy girl running around the gar-den to being in intensive care in a matter of weeks. That could happen to me and it does scare me.”

Mrs Wilson’s husband Graeme said the past year had been ‘devastating’ and made even harder as his father died the day Skye came home from hospital.

“I can’t describe how I feel. There are no words to describe the year we’ve had. We’re constantly on edge hoping that Skye’s OK and that the anti-rejection drugs work. Now, if Tracey feels ill, we wonder if that’s a sign of anything worse,” he said.

Mrs Wilson is now taking anti-depressants to cope with the situation.

Speaking during National Transplant week, she said: “I want people who aren’t sure about signing up to the organ donor register to know what’s happened to us. We were so lucky to get a match for Skye but there were other children in the hospital at the same time who only had 24 or 48 hours to live.”

The Wilsons are now focusing on spending quality family time together with Skye’s older siblings Bryony, 18, Bethan, 13, and Cameron, 12.

Mrs Wilson said: “We try to enjoy life and do what we can to carry on as normal but we just take each day as it comes.”