A ‘devoted’ Scots mum and research scientist who fronted a national exhibition raising awareness of birth heart defects has died days after Christmas while waiting for a double transplant.
Heather McDougall passed away on Wednesday, at the age of 38, three months after being put on the urgent list for a new heart and lungs.
She was being cared for at Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, which is the only transplant centre in the UK to offer heart transplants for adults with complex congenital heart disease (CHD).
From a farming family, Mrs McDougall was born with Shones Syndrome, which is a rare combination of four left-sided congenital cardiac anomalies.
She had my first open heart surgery at six months and first artificial valve at two years old and had several open heart surgeries.
She was photographed baring the scars of heart surgery for the ScarredFORLife' exhibition, which was held at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery in 2015 and toured Scotland.
The exhibition was created by three friends with CHD: Dr Liza Morton, Caroline Wilson and Jenny Kumar, on behalf of adult heart charity The Somerville Foundation, to highlight congenital heart disease - and to change the perception of scars.
Mrs McDougall’s husband Stuart said he had “no words” to describe the family’s loss but described his wife as an “amazing person and mother right to the end.”
Heather was mum to Ailsa, 10, and eight-year-old Iona. The family have a farm in Kelty in Fife.
At the time of the exhibition Mrs McDougall said: "I don't let my heart condition define me or hold me back.
“I have been to university, completed a BSc, PhD, and married my wonderful husband.
“We now have two very beautiful girls - Ailsa was born at the beginning of 2013 and Iona was born in October 2014. I feel very blessed and thankful for my scars. If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t be here.”
CHD is the most common congenital abnormality, affecting approximately 1% of babies.
A quarter of babies with heart defects require medical intervention in the first year of life and there are around 20,000 people living with CHD in Scotland.
Around half of people with CHD are diagnosed with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in their lifetime.
Charities estimate that thousands of patients who had surgery as babies decades ago are missing from NHS records.
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