LEIGH'S little Braveheart, Michael Gillespie, has died in hospital after a desperate wait for a heart transplant operation.
Despite a frantic countrywide and European search a suitable donor was not found in time to save the life of the "walking miracle" 10-years-old who never gave up.
He slipped away in Pendlebury Children's Hospital on Thursday after six weeks on national and European alert.
During that critical period countries were scoured for a matching organ, without success.
Heartbroken mum, Vivienne, of Beech Drive, Leigh, said: "Michael touched everyone's hearts. He was our bionic boy, a walking miracle. He had great courage. He suffered a life of illness without moaning. He never gave up and never complained of pain.
"All he asked was when's my new heart coming?"
Michael, a pupil at Christ Church, Pennington, endured a lifetime of problems after he was born with his heart the wrong way round.
At the age of seven he underwent a double switch operation in Birmingham, and operations followed including the fitting of a pacemaker, the repair of the pumping chamber and the fitting of a mechanical valve. He also suffered cardiac arrests.
For the past year the Manchester United and Arnold Schwarzenegger fanatic had been on the transplant list.
His condition worsened six weeks ago and the fight to find a donor began in hope.
The Rev Peter Leakey, conducted a funeral service at Christ Church, Pennington on Thursday. A MUM'S TRIBUTE
With tears in our eyes
With hearts that are broken we whisper low
Michael you never deserved what you went through
You were our darling little boy
Our beautiful, loving, caring son.
Why???
We lived in hope
We prayed so hard
Hoping so much that God would make you well again
But Michael the golden gates stood open
God said you needed rest
His garden must be beautiful
For he only takes the best
Memories of you will never grow old
They are locked in our hearts in letters of gold
Death cannot part us
For each day of our lives
You walk by our side
So look around your garden Lord, and pick the sweetest rose
And place it in our son's arms
And sprinkle it with love
For there lies a very precious, brave son
Who gave us all his love
We love you so much
Your heartbroken mum and dad, Mike, and sister Joanne Estelle.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article