A YORK woman who has faced heart surgery four times is now pouring her energies into raising money for a charity that helped her.
Amelia Wright, 34, from Huntington, is still recovering from her fourth operation and getting used to life with a pacemaker, but is already organising a charity jazz dinner in York to support the British Heart Foundation.
Amelia, who has come back to York after years working as a nanny in London, said she wanted to show her gratitude for the support she has received.
Amelia said: “I am very lucky to be here.
“I had to have a temporary pacemaker, and now I’ve had one fitted properly, but the support I had from friends and family was incredible.
“This is my way of thanking everyone, and giving something back.”
Born with a hole in her heart, Amelia had her first surgery at three months old, and has since then had three open heart surgeries - that last just 14 weeks ago. What surgeons planned as a valve replacement turned out to be more serious, and she was in surgery for 11 hours.
She has organised the dinner at Monk Bar Hotel on Friday, March 3 from 7pm, with a three course meal accompanied by jazz from York musicians including pianist Karl Mullen, Christian Topman, Joe Christie and Adam Dawson.
York Vintage Dance will also be there giving a taster of dance from the eras, and there will be a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses.
The event is supporting a campaign called Six Times Open, which has been launched by twins David and Jonathan Stretton-Downes as Jonathan faces his sixth open heart surgery.
The duo are aiming to raise £100,000 for the British Heart Foundation in 2017, and they hope to raise awareness of heart conditions and show that people living with them do not have to let their medical conditions dictate their lives.
Amelia met the twins by chance through her church in London, she said, and they later visited her in hospital so she decided to back their campaign out of thanks for that support.
Tickets for the jazz dinner cost £25 each, and are available by going to Eventbrite.com and searching for “Charity Jazz Dinner in support of Six Times Open”, or by contacting Amelia on ameliajw@hotmail.com
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