TEENAGER Amelia Scholey is recovering in hospital after undergoing her second emergency heart transplant operation in three days.

The 15-year-old, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, was flown to London for surgery last Wednesday.

But her body showed signs of rejecting the first donor heart and an appeal was issued for a second.

She was back in the operating theatre on Saturday and is now recovering, with mother Jackie and grandmother Anne Snarey by her side.

Back home in Roseberry Avenue, grandfather Alan Snarey said: "It was a big relief for us that a replacement heart was found. However, we are still apprehensive because she is still critical. We are hoping and praying.''

Amelia, a pupil at Raincliffe School, Scarborough, suffers from restrictive cardiomyopathy - a hereditary disease of the heart muscle, which claimed the lives of her 15-year-old brother Daniel last year, and her 36-year-old father, Harold, in 1988.

The family says the support of the people of Scarborough has helped keep them going.