Danish Royal Watchers: Mary at Heart Association's family course

Louise Sandsten receives a gift from Crown Princess Mary. Louise has just turned nine and is doing very well after a heart transplant earlier this year.

Today Crown Princess Mary has attended a family course at Horsens convened by the Heart Association. Six hundred children and family members attended the day organised by the Children's Club section of the Heart Association. Mary is patron of the Heart Association which was a patronage 'handed over' to her by Prince Henrik. Heart health, good treatments and medical research means a lot to her partly because of the illness and death of her mother. Mary's mother Etta died at just 55 of complications after valve surgery on 20 November 1997 in Hobart, Australia. Mary also has an association 'of the heart' as an honorary life governor with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney.

The Heart Association aims to update families on new research and treatments through its Children's Club and the day is also an opportunity for families facing the same situation to get together. Some of the children have had various operations to fix their heart problems. Mary met with the children and their families and listened to a lecture by a cardio-thoracic surgeon at University Hospital in Copenhagen about new treatments available to treat all sorts of serious heart conditions in children. Kronprinsesse Mary mødte hjertesyge børn