Football legend Alan Shearer has been announced as patron of the Children’s Heart Unit Fund at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in the UK.
Shearer celebrated the announcement by visiting some of the children currently undergoing treatment at the facility.
“I feel hugely honoured to have been appointed as a patron of the Children’s Heart Unit Fund,” he said. “I am extremely proud of the North East and to have a unit of this calibre serving both the region and the UK is a credit to our medical profession and talented medical professionals within.”
The Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital is one of only two centres in the UK offering paediatric heart transplant and bridge to transplant, with transplant numbers increasing to the point where the unit now provides almost half of the UK’s paediatric transplants. They also have the expertise and support systems through their transplant service to allow them to undertake high-risk surgery. The Children’s Heart Unit is also the only service providing before birth care with seamless transition to adulthood.
Providing world class care, the unit is structured to deliver the best possible results for critically ill babies, children and young people.
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