COMMUNITIES united this week as the plight of a little girl from Kirkby Malham gripped the nation.

Throughout Craven people followed the progress of six-year-old Sally Slater who, with hours to live, underwent a heart transplant.

Sally's parents, Jon and Bridget, and their parents, Tom and Barbara Slater, of Threshfield, and John and Shirley Rycroft, of Kirkby Malham, are well known in Craven.

The thoughts of a district, not to mention a country, were with them and Sally as she continued to improve this week.

On Tuesday came a very special moment when Sally was able to squeeze her mother's hand.

Literally sackloads of cards from wellwishers have been delivered to the Slaters at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where Sally underwent the transplant in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Barbara Slater told the Herald: "Jon and Bridget are quite overwhelmed. The love, support, prayers and wishes they have received both locally and from the whole country is unbelievable.

"We couldn't live in a better area for the support and comfort that we have received from both dales."

Sally's ordeal began just over four weeks ago. She was off-colour but nobody thought for a minute that her life would soon be in danger.

Mrs Slater said: "She was slightly unwell. On the Friday they took her to Airedale Hospital then on Saturday she went to Leeds. She went downhill every day. It was an absolute living nightmare. Towards the end of the week they started talking about a transplant.

"She was moved to Newcastle to wait for a heart. She has been on life support for three weeks. There was no heart available for two weeks and she deteriorated to such an extent that Jon and Bridget put out the appeal," said Mrs Slater.

"We went from having no hope at the end of last week to having renewed hope, although we are being realistic, we know she is still a very poorly little girl," she added.

Jon and Bridget, both 36, spoke about the "tide of emotion and rollercoaster" of the last few days.

Mr Slater, a financial adviser at Slater Marchant in Grassington and Settle, said: "It is remarkably fortunate on our part that she is still alive. But at the same time you have to look at the fact somebody else isn't."

He believed Sally's plight had touched the nation because she was just six and was fit and well only a month ago. "I think parents will look at their own children and say, this could have been our child."

Mr Slater, who is the captain of Upper Wharfedale Cricket Club, said of the family's ordeal: "It's been a bit of a real test, we have virtually said goodbye to her three times in the last two or three weeks.

"We don't know if she's been able to hear what we said. The prognosis on three separate occasions has left us thinking that we won't see her again.

"At the moment it is difficult not to get too optimistic. We have been on such a tide of emotion and rollercoaster. We had become more and more pessimistic, but now to have some hope is equally as difficult to bear."

Mr and Mrs Slater thanked the family who had donated the heart to save their daughter.

Mrs Slater, a lecturer at Craven College, said: "I hope our story will make people think about being a donor so that people like Sally can have a chance to live."

All Sally's grandparents reiterated the family's gratitude and stressed the importance of carrying donor cards.

Mrs Rycroft said: "Thank you very much to the people who have gone through the horror of losing somebody. We have thought of the need for grown-ups to have donor cards, but I had never thought of one to encompass children before. It must be the hardest thing of all to give a child's organs away."

Mr Rycroft asked through the Herald that everyone thought about carrying a donor card to help other families.

Surgeons described how they used revolutionary new technology to save Sally's life seven days before her heart transplant. She was fitted with a plastic artificial heart.

It is only the sixth time the operation using the £40,000 "plastic heart" has been used in the UK, and only the second time on a child.

Consultant paediatric heart surgeon Leslie Hamilton said: "This is the first time we have successfully used this temporary artificial heart to support someone in order for a heart to become available. It is very new technology."

The transplant was carried out by heart surgeon Asif Hasan.

Mr and Mrs Slater and Mr and Mrs Rycroft paid tribute to their children for the strength and courage they had shown.

Mrs Slater said: "Jon and Bridget have been so strong for Sally. They have shown great courage and now they have renewed hope. They really are excellent parents, very caring. We took our lead from them, if they can be strong so can we. Never in your wildest dreams do you think anything as horrendous as this will happen."

Mrs Rycroft told the Herald: "Jon and Bridget are doing incredibly well. They have had a terrific lot of support from people locally, friends and family, the church, the whole community, everybody. It helps and makes a big difference.

"The hospitals have been wonderfully kind and supportive, they have really helped them. They have been kindness itself."

A pupil at Kirkby Malham Primary School, Sally has two brothers, Joe, five, and three-year-old Charlie. They are staying with Mrs Slater's sister, Gilly, in Kirkby Malham.

"We are trying to keep life as normal as possible for them," said Mrs Rycroft.

Sally is described as a sunny little girl with a happy disposition who loves dressing up, reading, painting, and mothering her little brothers.

Barbara Slater said: "She loves playing with her dolls and girly glittery things. She's a good friend to Bridget too, they have a very good relationship."

The belfry light in Kirkby Malham Church has been lit as a beacon of hope for Sally, who attends the Sunday School there. It will not be switched off until she and her family are home again, said the vicar, the Rev Mark I'Anson.

"What a lot of people don't realise is this has been going on for over three weeks. People have been shocked, and almost distraught. There were desperate times when we thought she was going to die.

"We have been praying for Sally and it was good to be able to tell the congregation on Mothering Sunday that she had a new heart. I was able to tell them to think positively. The only thing we could do was to hope and pray," said Mr I'Anson.

Juli Boocock, landlady of the Buck Inn in Malham, said the whole area was united in keeping Sally in their thoughts.

"I have never known anything like this. You see someone and it's "how is she, have you heard anything?" and you haven't even needed to say who you were talking about.

"It's not just the dale. People in Skipton and Settle have been saying prayers for her," she said.

Sally was described yesterday (Thursday) as poorly but more responsive.

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