Sally Slater has taken her first trip outside the grounds of the Newcastle hospital where she is recovering from a heart swap operation.

The six-year-old, who lives near Skipton, has already ventured into the grounds of the Freeman Hospital but the trip to a nearby park was her first taste of the outside world since undergoing the life-saving transplant.

Her gran, Barbara Slater of Threshfield, said: "It was a lovely sunny day and she was allowed out in her wheelchair in the park. She took her camera, which she really enjoys, and took some pictures of the ducks and the lake. She is still wobbly on her feet but she has taken her first steps."

Sally, a pupil at Kirkby Malham School, was given a new heart after a last-minute nationwide appeal for a donor. She became ill in March when she was struck down with a virus which destroyed the muscles in her heart. Her mum and dad, Bridget and Jon, both aged 36, have been at her bedside since the operation.

It is hoped that, once she has gained more weight and is able to walk better, she can return to her Kirkby Malham home by the early summer.

"Sally has lost a lot of weight but she has eaten her first jacket potato and baked beans," added her gran, who is planning a sponsored walk in aid of the Freeman Hospital-based Child Heart Unit Fund.

Sally was kept alive, until a donor was found, by two £40,000 plastic hearts, which are funded by CHUF. As she clung to life, her father made a national appeal for a donor. One was found the following day and Sally immediately underwent surgery. She has since undergone another operation to fit a pacemaker after an external heart pacemaking device was found to be faulty.

Sally is also undergoing physiotherapy to bring movement and strength back to her limbs.

"She still doesn't like it but she is doing really well. She is coming on in leaps and bounds. She is no longer fed intravenously,'' said Mrs Slater, who plans to carry out the sponsored walk from her home to Kirkby Malham later this summer.

A spokesman for the Freeman Hospital said today: "Sally is doing really well. She is getting better and her parents are really pleased with her."

Jon, a financial consultant, and Bridget, a lecturer at Craven College, Skipton, ask anyone wishing to help children such as Sally in the future to make donations to the Heart Surgery Fund at Leeds General Infirmary.

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