Special LEGO workshops in Newcastle's Eldon Square highlighted how vital organ donation is - and one mum of a daughter waiting for a heart transplant paid tribute to the "amazing" support from medics and charities in Newcastle.
A giant heart designed by Brick This LEGO architect Steve Mayes has been on show in the Newcastle city centre shopping centre for a week - and now it will move to the Freeman Hospital. The heart was designed as part of a project to highlight how important it is to think about organ donation and to support children and adults waiting for transplants in the city.
One mum - Ella Watt - spoke movingly of how a donor heart would be life-saving for her daughter, while specialist nurse Dominic Manning highlighted how having difficult conversations about organ donation can make all the difference. Steve then helped children and families to create their very own mini LEGO hearts to take home.
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Ella Watt's 18 month old daughter Lola is one of the children waiting for a transplant at the Freeman. Lola fell ill in early January - a virus exposed an underlying condition in her heart. She has been given a "Berlin heart" following surgery last week, which will keep her alive until a donor heart can be found.
Mum Ella, 30, visited the LEGO heart workshop to show her support for the medics who are looking after her daughter and to back the campaign raising awareness of organ donation. She said: "I wanted to support this when I saw it was happening as my daughter is on the transplant list.
"It's amazing what everyone has done for us as a family and for Lola in particular. What the nursing and medical staff do is amazing - they produce miracles on a daily basis."
Ella explained that given what her family has been through in the last six weeks, she felt it was natural to come down and support the initiative, which has been put together by the Newcastle Hospitals Charity.
Nurse Dominic - who works for NHS Blood and Transplant but is based at Newcastle's hospitals and helps people throughout the North East through the decision to donate organs - explained how important the job is. He told ChronicleLive: "There are a lot of children in the Freeman waiting for transplants of one kind or another.
"In general there are always more people on the transplant list than there are organs available. Donating an organ saves lives. It's really important that people have that discussion to make clear what their feelings [on organ donation] are.
"If your loved one is admitted to hospital in a very quick emergency situation it's incredibly traumatic. You are likely to be grieving and upset - so having to have those discussions at that stage can be quite difficult. That's why it's good for you to already know what someone would want. It makes supporting that decision easier."
Amy Maughan, communications officer at Newcastle Hospitals Charity, added that events like this one during half-term were facets of how the charity supports the work of NHS staff at the Freeman and RVI. She said: "We're really proud to see how this event has come together. It's lovely to see how many people have been queuing to take part.
"It's great to get out into the community and shout about the work of the inspiring teams at Newcastle's hospitals. And lovely to see all the happy faces."
Amy explained the charity had recently provided one of the first ANRP (Abdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion) machine in the country - which helps keep abdominal organs viable for transplant for longer. The charity also bought one of the Berlin Heart machines like that which is currently keeping little Lola alive.
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