HEART-SWAP teenager Hannah Swift is facing a sporting summer - representing her country in the World Transplant Games.

The 16-year-old from Helmsley had to have an emergency heart transplant when she was nine and has also suffered from cancer.

This summer she will be heading for Nancy, in France, to represent Britain at badminton, ball-throw and ten-pin bowling.

"I used to do swimming in the British games with my team from the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle before my cancer, but I can't do that now," she said.

Like other teenagers across the country, Hannah, a pupil at Ryedale School, will first have to take her GCSE exams.

Hannah was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2001, but has been successfully receiving chemotherapy.

She said she hoped to raise awareness about the importance of transplants with her trip abroad and the British Transplant Games, which will held at Alton Towers at the end of next month.

National Transplant Week runs from July 7 to 14, the week before Hannah flies to France.

"I didn't even know what a transplant was before I had to have one," she said.

"You never think it's going to happen to you, but it might."