Daily Mail story 2 May 2000

Beth's amazing year

Seven months ago, Beth Heaton was desperately ill and in need of a bone marrow transplant. Her big sister Emma wrote a touching letter to God, pleading with Him not to take her away. After she read out the letter on national television, 24,000 people came forward as possible donors and Beth was able to have the life-saving surgery in December.

Yesterday, with her parents and doting big sister, Beth celebrated her first birthday at home in Totton, Hampshire. Her father Stuart said: "Today is the day we have dreamed about."

Her mother Karen added: "We wondered whether we were ever going to see today."

Beth was born with a rare blood disorder and became dangerously ill. Seven-year-old Emma had already lost another big sister, Katie, four years earlier, from an unrelated bowel disease. She read out her plea for Beth on the BBC's City Hospital programme. "Dear God please can I keep my sister because I love her very much,' she wrote. "You have Katie in Heaven and if you take Beth I will have no sisters left."

The operation was carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and Beth spent nearly a month in an isolation unit before getting the all-clear.