Total of 3 can’t stop

LINZI Saunders is a walking miracle after having her life saved three times – thanks to transplant surgery.

Struck down by leukaemia at 18 months old, doctors gave her just a 40% chance of survival.

But fine art student Linzi, now 21, has never been one to give up.

And as she prepares for a day she never thought she’d see, her graduation, Linzi has told of her remarkable journey.

Her amazing story started not long after she was born.

Diagnosed with two different complex types of leukaemia, medics decided they had no option but to try new research medication, with Linzi becoming the first patient to undergo this type of treatment.

It was then decided that a bone marrow transplant would be needed and all Linzi’s family were tested to see if they would be possible donors.

Her brother, James, proved a perfect match but, despite a successful transplant, the new treatment Linzi was receiving began affecting her heart and she went on to develop cardiomyopathy by the age of eight.

It was a condition doctors could not ignore and while still a pupil at Ryhope Junior School in Sunderland, Linzi was told she would need a new heart.

Put on to the NHS Organ Donor Register, she waited five weeks before being told that a donor heart had been found.

While mum Michelle, 50, and dad James, 53, waited by her bedside, Linzi astounded doctors by making a speedy recovery, returning to her Ryhope home on December 23.

Linzi said: “I went into Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital on December 4, 2005, for the operation. I don’t remember a huge amount about it.

“But I remember I felt better quite quickly. I don’t like doing nothing, and it’s quite hard for me to sit still.”

Despite her fightback, Linzi would go on to miss much of Year 4 at school as she attended regular hospital appointments so specialists could keep a check on her.

Never one to sit around, Linzi refused to be limited by her condition, she continued with