Triumph over health adversity

Reporter A HEART transplant survivor who overcame a rare form of leukaemia is celebrating after passing her GCSEs.

Chloe Beaney had to miss the majority of Year 10 at Cramlington Learning Village after undergoing a life-saving heart transplant.

The brave teenager also battled acute myeloid leukaemia – a rare type of blood cancer – after being diagnosed with the disease aged two.

Despite her tough start in life, Chloe has gone on to achieve C grades in her GCSEs.

Holding back the tears, proud mum Catriona Wilkinson said: “I am absolutely thrilled. It has been really difficult for her as she had home tuition for a while until she was ready to come back to school.

“She has been through an awful lot but she has just worked really hard. I could not be more proud.”

Smiling while clutching her exam results, Chloe said: “I’m really happy - I did better than I thought. I knew that I had to work really hard.”

The teenager now plans to go to sixth form at Cramlington Learning Village and has ambitions to become a midwife. Chloe, of Cramlington, Northumberland, received six Chloe Beaney with her mum Catriona Wilkinson months of intensive chemotherapy as a tot.

By the age of 12, she had developed dilated cardiomyopathy a disease of the heart muscle in which it becomes stretched and thin, making the organ unable to pump blood round the body efficiently.

By September 2014, Chloe desperately needed a heart transplant. He life was saved after she was placed at the top of the national organ donor register.

Three months after her operation the teenager returned to school to a round of applause.

Her mum, 37, said: “They school has supported her all the way through the treatment.”