A MOTHER, whose daughter underwent a lifesaving heart operation when she was just weeks old, is spear heading a huge fundraising event.
Vicky Panther, of Holybourne, wants to raise hundreds of pounds for two charities close to her heart through the live music event, Wessex Heartbeat and Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).
Mrs Panther's daughter Amy was just three weeks old when she had an eight-hour operation to correct the positioning of the major arteries around her heart.
Since then, Amy, who attends Eggar's School in Alton, has grown into a normal, healthy teenager with just a slight heart murmur.
Mrs Panther is full of praise for the teams of doctors and nurses who carried out the operation and supported her and her family while Amy was in hospital.
Mrs Panther said: "When she was born, nothing was diagnosed. We left Basingstoke hospital thinking that everything was 100 per cent OK. It was about two weeks later that she started to go blue – that is the typical symptom of a heart defect. They call them 'blue babies'. She was blue around her sinuses and fingernails and she wouldn't feed or settle.
"She was surviving on very little oxygen. The oxygen in her body was 45 per cent and it should be something like 98 per cent. She had an operation that night to keep her alive. They put a big catheter inside her with a balloon blown up inside to allow oxygen to circulate around the body. They waited a week for her to gain weight before she had the major surgery.
"She was in intensive care after the operation, before she was allowed to come home." Amy now just has to attend hospital once every two years for a scan and to have her height, weight and blood pressure checked. Mrs Panther came up with the idea to host the music event to feature 70s band GrooveJuice, after a friend, Sandie Scrivens, held a successful charity night last November for SUDEP.
SUDEP aims to support families affected by and promote research into SUDEP and other epilepsy deaths and raise awareness of the condition.
Tickets are selling fast for the event to be held at Medstead Village Hall on Saturday, September 9, starting at 7-30 pm, Mrs Panther has already sold more than 150 of the 200 tickets.
As well as the live band, there will be a raffle with prizes including a £100 personal training voucher and a £45 facial donated by Mint Condition (Personal Fitness) in Binsted, a spa day at Physicals Fitness Club in Alton and a haircut at John McCarthy's Hair Salon in Alton. Medstead pub, Castle of Comfort, will be running the bar, and donating 10 per cent of the takings to the two charities.
Tickets cost £10 to include a light buffet. For more information about the event, call Vicky Panther on 01420 82053.