Having Abbey Cape home safe and well is the best Christmas present her family could have hoped for.

Just eight months ago, 10-year-old Abbey was on a life-support machine and given just days to live.

I never thought about whether I would be well for Christmas Abbey Cape

Her family made a nationwide appeal for a heart transplant.

At the 11th hour a donor was found, enabling Abbey to undergo life-saving surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Now Abbey and her family, from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, are enjoying the Christmas that seemed impossible in the early days of her illness.

Celebrations

Her mother Marianne said that for the first time in a year, the family could plan ahead - when she was ill they just lived day to day.

"Abbey is doing really really well," she told BBC News Online.

"To look at her now you would not know that she had been ill.

"She still needs to go to the hospital every two months for a check-up.

"But when Abbey was really ill we couldn't look any more forward than just the next day.

"We could have lost her and Christmas this year would have been very different."

Mrs Cape said Christmas would simply be a celebration of the fact that the family were all still together.

"We are having a big family celebration, there will be about 16 of us sitting down together for a meal.

"We are not doing anything out of the ordinary this year, but obviously it is more poignant.

"Abbey is really excited about Christmas."

Mrs Cape said she and her family would be sparing a special thought this Christmas for the family of the donor whose heart saved Abbey's life.

"We are eternally grateful and can't put into words how we feel. Our Christmas would have been very different if it had not been for them."

Transplant

In March, Abbey started becoming weak and tired and she was unable to hold down her food.

She was diagnosed with a rare heart infection - severe cardiomyopathy.

The disease caused her muscles to swell and prevented blood from flowing normally, reducing the organ's functioning power to just 8% of normal.

Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was only kept alive on a life support system.

For three weeks her situation was desperate, and she was placed at the top the European emergency transplant list.

Looking forward

Abbey said her illness had seriously affected her appetite and admitted that one of the things she was looking forward to most was being able to eat her Christmas dinner this year.

"Last year I was really fussy about what I would eat, but this year I am just going to eat and eat.

"I am a vegetarian so I won't be eating the turkey but I absolutely love eating the stuffing.

"I never thought about whether I would be well for Christmas, I just thought will I be well enough tomorrow."

"I'm not looking forward to any particular Christmas present, I am just hoping for lots of surprises," she said.

Health Minister David Lammy said cases like Abbey's highlighted the importance of carrying a donor card.

"Because transplantation is now so successful, more and more patients have a chance of benefiting from transplants.

"More than 5,6000 people are currently waiting for an organ transplant within the UK, yet only a small percentage will be fortunate enough to receive an organ.

"Many thousands more, though their lives may not at present be threatened, could benefit from a transplant if more organs were available."

And he urged people to join the donor register.