A baby girl who received life-saving heart surgery thanks to the efforts of Evening Echo readers is making progress in her bid for health, her mother said.

Phoebe Davies was given a new lease of life by the pioneering operation in Canada after Echo readers raised £80,000 in a campaign started by her uncle, Keith Saxby, who runs a Southend computer business.

The delicate surgery means that Phoebe, now 19 months, can laugh and cry without the risk of dying, but she has lost the use of her left side.

Phoebe lives with parents Ruth and Kevin, and their other two young children, in Deal, Kent. Ruth said yesterday: "She's never going to have the use of her left side and she can't sit up, but she is putting on weight so she is doing okay.

"She has a hard old fight ahead of her but she laughs and giggles now and it is a real weight off our shoulders to know that she can do that and her joy is not going to be fatal."

She added: "There is still a lot of work to be done and it's going to be very tough, but Phoebe is a tough little so-and-so and we'll get there."

Published Tuesday, April 9, 2002