Family's appeal for brave little Ivanna to get life-changing heart surgery

A NORTH East family are desperately trying to raise £250,000 to take their “courageous” four-year-old girl to the United States for surgery to repair her heart.

- SAM VOLPE

Ivanna Watts

Ivanna Potts was born with complex congenital heart problems and has spent her life in and out of hospital.

Now, her family are fighting to raise the money needed to take her to the USA as they believe it is only at Boston Children's Hospital that she will receive the surgery that will change her life.

They feel frustrated with the options they have been offered at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

The little girl, a Sunderland fan who recently appeared at the Stadium of Light as a mascot, loves colouring and cartoons - but her health limits her ability to play with her friends or be active.

As it stands, her family fear the only option she has been offered at the Freeman - a Fontan procedure - would bring with it lifelong complications. They also explained they continue to wait for a time frame for this.

Instead, the family, from Red House in Sunderland, reached out for a second opinion in the United States and have been told by a team in Boston that she is a suitable patient - but that she will need to be seen as soon as possible. For the family, this feels like their only hope.