A mother whose daughter was born with half a heart will walk more than 16 miles from Wolverhampton to Birmingham this weekend to thank staff who treated her.

Emma Mackin, aged 27, will walk from her workplace, Somerfield in Penn, to Birmingham Children’s Hospital with her parents and five colleagues on Sunday.

Mrs Mackin’s daughter Paige, now four, was diagnosed with the rare disorder when she was three weeks old. She has already had two major operations on her heart – to stop blood flooding into the lungs and to widen a valve – and a third operation is planned for early next year.

But doctors have said nothing can be done to enable the organ to function completely normally. “She does try to be a normal child but gets tired very quickly,” said Mrs Mackin, of Arley Grove in Penn.

Anyone who wants to make a donation to Mrs Mackin is advised to inquire at Somerfield in Warstones Road, Penn.