“Is he going to be alright? Is he going to be normal after this?” are the thoughts that went through Belle Syrett’s mind at just four years old. Her younger brother Jayden means the world to her. For three months, Belle’s brother, who is now five, was on the waiting list to receive a heart transplant, before he received one.
She didn’t understand fully what was going on four years ago, but it changed the family’s life forever.
He had an enlarged heart, and needed a new one to survive.
Now, four years later Belle did a science fair project on the topic.
She learned about the types of medication he got, what they were for, and how people live life after transplants.
Belle said it’s helped her understand how she can better help her brother.
“Me and Jayden actually have…had a stronger understanding of what's happened with him,” said Belle.
The project chronicles Jayden’s transplant.
It explains what a heart transplant is, and why they’re needed, and it has testimonials from other people who have also received heart transplants.
Belle’s Principal Stella Hussey from École Assiniboine said it’s not often you come across a science project like this one.
“When I saw that I was really emotional myself about it, it was just a wow moment and I thought she had to have a venue to tell her story,” said Hussey.
Now, Belle will have a stage to tell her story. She’s taking her project to the 2014 Divisional Science Fair in two weeks, and is looking to go gold there, just how she did at her school.
But for the eight-year old, that’s not enough.
She’s making it her life mission to raise awareness about heart transplants and organ donations. “When I’m older, I’ll make a bigger impact on it and it'll be bigger and better and it'll just keep going and going and it'll spread around the world and that would be awesome and really nice.”
The divisional science fair will take place on April 9 at George Waters Middle School.
