Elliott Livingstone, the two-year-old desperately seeking a new heart

'Cheeky' two-year-old has a Thomas the Tank engine sticker on the artificial heart that has kept him alive for eight months

Elliott Livingstone, whose story we will be following

Two-year-old Elliott is a "cheeky" little boy who has a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker on his Berlin heart machine, the artificial heart that has kept him alive since his own heart failed eight months ago.

Fitting Elliott with the Berlin heart required major surgery and he now has four tubes pumping blood around his tiny body.

They keep him alive but the machine has left him confined to the wards of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) until a new heart is found.

A third of children like Elliott will die before a new heart becomes available for transplant, which is why The Independent's Give to Gosh appeal is funding a new specialist 14-bed unit for children with heart failure.

Elliott recently celebrated his birthday at GOSH, on the same day as his friend Marley Scott turned seven.

Marley has gone home after a successful transplant, but Elliott is still waiting. "Some people think seeing another successful transplant makes us jealous," said his mother Candace. "But I tell myself that all the children here are waiting for a heart, but it's just not the same heart."

To Give to GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1Mydxqt

To find out more about our appeal and why we're supporting GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1MycZkr

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