Ebony is a proud Mum of two children: Amelia, who is eight years old and Elijah who is two.  
 
When Amelia was two years old, her world changed as she went into heart failure and was subsequently diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that affects the pumping power of the heart. Given the severity of her heart failure, the only option for Amelia was heart transplantation. 

Several months after her diagnosis, Amelia was listed on the heart transplant waiting list. Ebony recalls thinking, “When will she get a new heart? Where will it come from? How long will it be?.” Luckily, a donor heart became available for Amelia, and she underwent transplantation that year. 

However, following Amelia’s heart transplant, Ebony was to discover that her son, Elijah, has the same cardiomyopathy. Elijah is being closely monitored by the cardiology team, but Ebony and the family face the uncertainty of not knowing whether he might go into heart failure one day. 

Children like Amelia and Elijah face a lifelong health journey, as heart transplantation unfortunately does not offer a cure for these patients. For this reason, Ebony finds comfort in knowing that new therapies are in the pipeline to give patients more options in the future. 

“It's good to know that there are people working on things that will help the lives of my kids and other kids around the country” – Ebony Mallison.

Read more about our recent childhood heart disease research.