A shy but smiling Sally Slater posed for pictures as she prepared to leave the hospital where her life was saved less than six weeks ago.

The six-year-old, who underwent a heart transplant with just hours to spare, said she was looking forward to going home to see her two brothers, eat her favourite carrot cake and to play with her aunt's dog called Fudge.

Wearing a multi-coloured cardigan and a white nightdress, Sally, from Kirby Malham, near Skipton, was shy in front of the cameras but happy to give a beaming smile that showed how far she had come on since her operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne.

When asked if she was looking forward to seeing her brothers Charlie, three, and Joe, five, she said: "Yes." And she smiled broadly when she told how Charlie had once put Fudge in the family washing machine.

Her parents, Jon and Bridget, who lectures at Craven College in Skipton, are hoping to take Sally home in the next couple of days.

Yesterday, accompanied by her favourite nurse Debbie Puston, she thanked all the doctors and nurses who worked round-the-clock to save her.

It was the first time Sally had shown off her new lease of life after receiving the heart of an unknown donor.

And it was a photo opportunity her parents never dared believe would happen just a few weeks ago.

Mr Slater, 36, said: "We can never say thank you enough to all the doctors and nurses on ward 28 at the Freeman Hospital who are incredibly dedicated to what they do and who have been incredibly kind to Sally and the family.

"And secondly we have to say a big thank you to the family of the person who donated the heart for Sally. Without that amazing gift this would never have happened, and the story would be very different.

"We have exchanged letters through the hospital with that family and I am sure we will do so again at a later date."

Her parents have told her the heart was a kind gift, vital after a mystery virus infected her heart, bringing on a condition known as cardiomyopathy, which attacks the heart muscles.

From a perfectly healthy little girl, her condition deteriorated with frightening speed.

She was moved from a unit in Leeds to the regional heart centre at the Freeman Hospital on March 21.

Four days later, doctors fitted her out with a revolutionary plastic artificial heart to buy more time for a donor to be found.

But as the hours slipped by, Mr and Mrs Slater made an appeal for help through the media.

Three days later their prayers were answered: a heart became available and a seven-hour operation went ahead smoothly.

Since then Sally has continued to amaze doctors and her parents with the speed of her recovery.

But the Slaters said today Sally would still be in need of indefinite care and attention and were resisting the urge to get carried away with her recovery.

She will have to undergo weekly blood tests and physiotherapy for the foreseeable future, but these should become less frequent as her heart gets stronger.

Mr Slater, a self-employed financial adviser, said: "We're going to have to keep our feet on the ground everyday for the rest of her life.

"Unfortunately, the rest of her life is not going to be the same as any other child, but we have to think we have been incredibly lucky at the same time.

"All we can do is to make sure she has the best quality of life possible, by keeping an eye on her diet and temperature and what she gets up to in her everyday life."

He added: "We have been very fortunate over the last few weeks in having so many friends who have helped us out."

Meanwhile, the publicity surrounding Sally's fight for life has raised awareness about organ donation and brought calls for an extended scheme to be adopted nationally.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.