At her twenty week scan Ferdie received the devastating diagnosis that her daughter had an incurable heart condition. Ferdie is a trained medical clinician and works as a Dentist so she instantly understood the medical jargon and knew how serious her daughter’s condition was.

She was give three options; terminate the pregnancy, go to full-term and allow her baby to die naturally with no intervention  or have a series of palliative high risk open heart surgeries starting soon after birth.

Imaan is now 14yrs and has undergone a series of three open-heart surgeries – the first within a few days of being born, the second at seven months old which was also on the day of her first Eid and the final surgery took place when she was 5yrs.

In the early years Imaan was in and out of hospital but today she faces a range of different challenges as a teenager with half a functioning heart.

Imaan is determined to live a full life as possible and is keen to raise awareness of the issues she faces.  Ferdie says her biggest challenge is not being understood.  Ferdie has had to fight for her daughter every step of the way. Imaan looks no different to other teens her age but she is living with one of the most serious heart conditions that exist.

Imaan began her journey with the Little Hearts Matter youth services. Since then she has joined in with youth residential events, written her story for their website and newsletter as well as coming into the offices to not only be the voice of up and coming youth animation but to record footage to support Facebook campaigns. Imaan has shared her goals of becoming a journalist.

By sharing her story and the struggles Imaan faces she helps others either feel less isolated or learn more about life with a single ventricle heart condition.  This month she was awarded the Little Hearts Matter Brave Hearts Ambassadorial Award.