Miracle woman Mandy Andrews is on the mend - and your messages of support made a huge difference

The Hartlepool superhero, 52, has been in the headlines ever since she had a heart and lung transplant in April 1986.

But she is currently being treated at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for complications with her heart and kidney, and for a serious lung infection.

We told last month how her family wanted to send messages of encouragement from Hartlepool Mail readers in the hope it would help with her recovery.

You responded in style and flooded the Mail’s Facebook site with heartwarming words of support.

Readers told Mandy they were thinking of her every day and that they were praying for Hartlepool’s very own bionic woman.

Today, Mandy’s god daughter Sarah Lewis confirmed that Mandy’s condition was improving and she is ‘doing much better’.

Sarah added: “She has been moved to a transplant ward in Freeman and is up and walking about. She feels great in herself but they're still working on getting her lungs right before she can come home.

"Her brother Simon came home from Dubai and got to visit her through the window at the hospital so that lifted her spirits massively.

"She has also had family members sat in the hospital garden near her room so they've also been able to say hello. It has really given her the boost she needs.”

Another big boost, said Sarah, had been the messages of support from Mail readers.

She added: “I'd say a large part of her improvement is because of the fight that she has in her, and because of the support that she's received from her family and Hartlepool Mail readers. It has definitely given her the momentum she needs to keep pushing through.”

Mandy has been in the headlines ever since she had her double transplant in 1986.

During her childhood, the former Thornhill School pupil found she could not climb stairs and was frequently out of breath, with even the smallest of tasks becoming an effort.

But hope was on the horizon when on April 13, 1986, seven months after her 18th birthday, she became the first person in the region to receive the life-saving gift of a new heart and lungs.

She had the six-hour operation at Harefield Hospital, in Middlesex, following an agonising six-month wait for a donor.

But after three or four years, her condition deteriorated and she was fighting for breath again and became wheelchair bound.

When medics found that a set of donor lungs were compatible, it is thought Mandy became the first patient to have undergone the procedure following the previous transplant.

On her 30th birthday, on September 9, 1997, she was given the best present she could ask for when doctors at Newcastle's Freemans Hospital told her she was making excellent progress.

Since then, she has had a new kidney in 2011.

Now Mandy is facing her latest health fight with typical battling spirit. Sarah said: “She is still fighting hard and remaining as positive as possible. She just wants to be home now with her son Harry and little dog Bella.”

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