CHILDREN awaiting heart transplants are to be thrown a lifeline by one of the region's top heart transplant hospitals.

A Government-funded research scheme will provide a machine that can keep children's hearts pumping for as long as three months while they wait for a suitable organ donor to be found.

Specialists at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle will carry out tests on the German-made artificial pump, known as a ventricular assist device, along with surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London.

The joint research project could mean that as many as ten children in the country could benefit from the machine, and if tests prove successful, the NHS plans to extend the scheme.

Last year, the device kept alive seven-year-old Sally Slater, from Kirkby Malham, in North Yorkshire, while her parents, Bridget and Jon, made a desperate public appeal for a donor to come forward.

A donor was eventually found and doctors at the Freeman believe that the youngster, who is doing very well following her transplant operation, would not have survived without the artificial pump.

Sally's father welcomed news of the research programme, which will be funded by the National Specialist Commissioning Advisory Committee.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Slater said: "Bridget and myself are obviously delighted the Government has decided to fund this, instead of, as in the past, the money having to be sought through fundraising."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "This is not going to be a replacement for a transplantation.

"It is very much a bridge to transplantation, a way of helping children if an organ is not yet available."

The Government's promise comes two years after The Northern Echo launched the Chance To Live Campaign, following the premature death of its photographer, Ian Weir.

The 38-year-old father-of-two died of a heart attack while waiting for a bypass operation, and The Northern Echo's campaign succeeded in prompting Health Secretary Alan Milburn to launch the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease.

The scheme is a blueprint designed to inject millions of pounds into heart services and save the lives of 20,000 heart patients over ten years.