PHOEBE PACE IS A WINNING TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
Playing in the sunshine, a young Phoebe Pace is enjoying every second of her life. Jumping for joy, the bubbly livewire has plenty to celebrate as she marks an important milestone in her recovery from life-saving surgery.
Phoebe, of Low Fell, Gateshead, has battled back from undergoing a transplant after she suffered massive liver failure just four weeks before her second birthday.
While swimming with her mother Lesley-Anne, her skin seemed to be a bit yellow. Not wasting any time, her mother promptly took her to the doctor. After a series of tests revealed that Phoebe’s liver was failing as a result of a virus, Lesley-Anne’s world came collapsing down all around her. A toddler at the time, Phoebe underwent an emergency liver transplant.
That didn’t slow her down and it didn’t stop her from competing in the British Transplant Games in Newcastle Gateshead, just months later, proving how far she had come and how determined this small but strong individual was.
According to the NHS, every day, three patients in the UK die because they cannot get the donor organ they need. To help raise awareness of the problem, Phoebe competed in the Annual British Transplant Games on Tyneside and has so far clocked up 17 running medals in her young and inspirational life.
She is the epitome of perseverance, and EFS wanted to help her by spreading the word and raising funds for her to enter another competition that draws some light on this cause.
For Phoebe, this was not about the visibility but the act of supporting thousands just like her; and for EFS, empowering people and supporting their plight is not an obligation but a priority. Phoebe continues to be in excellent spirits and remains a shining ambassador for all the many people out there just like her.