A Glasgow schoolgirl, once likened to The Princess and the Pea after being nursed back to health on a tower of mattresses, is leading a charity walk for the hospital that saved her life. Isla Stewart-Lindsay, 13, was born with rare and life-threatening conditions affecting her oesophagus and heart.
As a baby, Isla had a major operation at the former Yorkhill Children's Hospital to connect her oesophagus to her stomach, before undergoing life-saving open heart surgery in 2010. In 2012 the Daily Record told how the tot was raised up on mattresses to accommodate the equipment, including an oxygen pump that relied on gravity, that saved her life.
Isla's mum, Jill Stewart, would read to her, often choosing The Princess and the Pea; about the princess who had to sleep on a pile of mattresses. She underwent a second open heart procedure in 2019 and used the Teddy Hospital at the Royal Hospital for Children, funded by Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity (GCHC), to relieve anxieties surrounding the surgery.
