Funeral for heart transplant girl

Zoe underwent a 10-hour transplant operation

Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of two-year-old heart transplant patient Zoe Chambers.

The toddler, from Hull, East Yorkshire, died suddenly on 12 July just a month after celebrating the first anniversary of her life-saving operation.

She had been doing so well she was due to be the youngest competitor at the British Transplant Games in August.

Her father Rob carried her small white coffin into Hull's Northern Crematorium for the funeral service.

Last year, Zoe, who was born with a heart valve defect, was given only weeks to live and was put at the top of the European heart transplant list.

She had suffered six cardiac arrests and was kept alive by an artificial heart until a donor was finally found after a campaign by her parents Rob and Julie Chambers.

She underwent a 10-hour operation at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital on 28 June 2007.

Last month it was announced that Zoe would take part in the British Transplant Games in Sheffield in August.

Carol Olley, from Transplant Sport UK, said: "Over a million people signed the organ donor register due to the campaign orchestrated by the Chambers family and Zoe's courage.

"In that sense Zoe has changed lives."