A FUNDRAISING operation launched by a Redditch woman after a heart transplant saved her father's life has now got even bigger.

The Transplant Stitch (formerly the Harefield Hospital Sponsored Stitch) has been going from strength to strength since its creation in 1991 by Elaine Whitfield.

To help deal with the emotions she went through when her father, Arthur, was waiting for and finally had the transplant, Miss Whitfield started a cross stitch project.

She decided to start the sponsored Transplant Stitch scheme as a way she and others could raise funds to help thousands of people who are still on the waiting list for transplants and she also raises funds for Harefield Hospital, which helped her father.

Her father was 67 when he had the surgery and on April 12, he becomes a transplant teenager.

This year, the Transplant Stitch campaign is expanding and will also raise funds for the Queen Elizabeth Cardiac Transplant Centre in Birmingham.

A Harefield Hospital spokesman said: "Elaine has been an outstanding and successful organiser, raising many thousands of pounds through the sponsored stitch, in addition to distributing a staggering one and a quarter million donor cards."

Elaine said: "The most precious gift each of us has is our tomorrows.

"When the stitch started it was always my idea that eventually it would grow to be big enough to support more of the transplant centres.

"We're all members of the transplant family and wherever our transplant centre is situated, we all have the same needs and should support the generosity of our donors' families."

For details and a sponsor pack, send an SAE to Elaine Whitfield, The Transplant Stitch 2004, PO Box 4649, Redditch, Worcestershire B98 8PF.