LITTLE Emma Standish -- who has just days to live -- was today undergoing a life-saving heart transplant operation after a donor was found.

Heart surgeons were performing the complex operation this morning just hours after the 10-year-old Bolton schoolgirl was rushed to one of Britain's top heart transplant centres.

News of the donor came yesterday hours after her family -- as revealed in the BEN in later editions last night -- launched a nationwide appeal.

The news that a donor had been found ended a three month ordeal for the family.

Throughout last night Emma, aged 10, and her family had faced an agonised wait to find out if the heart was compatible.

The St Peter's School pupil was rushed to the specialist heart unit, The Freeman, at Newcastle, late yesterday afternoon with her mother, Deborah, sitting alongside her.

They were in the ambulance when a telephone call to paramedics brought the fantastic news that a heart had been found.

As reported in the BEN yesterday, Emma was given just days to live after her kidneys failed and her family launched a nationwide appeal for a donor.

Unfortunately, bad weather conditions halted plans to airlift Emma and her parents to Newcastle, so doctors had to put the poorly schoolgirl under heavy sedation.

Her aunt, Dawn Cartwright, waited through the night without news from the hospital.

She said: "Doctors took a big risk putting her under sedation for the journey to Newcastle. They didn't know whether her heart would have been strong enough. But when she arrived at the hospital she was very poorly."

Dawn describes how she was sitting with her two other sisters in Clelland Street, Farnworth, when news came that Emma had been found a new heart.

Dawn said: "We all felt elated. If I won the Lottery tomorrow, it would not compare to the feelings that I had.

"We realise that it must have been someone else's tragedy for Emma to be given this hope.

"Another child has died. That is very difficult for us all to understand, the grief that this other family is going through."

Emma was due to have a mechanical heart fitted next to her own last night but that was cancelled at the last minute when a new heart was found.

Tests were carried out throughout the night and it was finally established the heart was compatible earlier this morning.

Dawn said: "Deborah told us that it would be a long night for everyone as they waited to hear whether the heart could be used. Now we are all just hoping and praying."

Emma was a bubbly girl before she was struck down by a virus which attacked her heart in the summer.

The dilated cardiomyopathy damaged the heart which put immense strain on her vital organs.

Aunt Julie Cartwright said: "She was like any other child before the illness, bright, cheeky with her own personality.

"She was a little mother hen to my young children.

"She was very bubbly and always had a smile on her face before the illness."

Emma's mum, Deborah, became increasingly worried in June when Emma started to be constantly sick and slept most of the day.

Her anxious mum took Emma, of Philips Avenue, Farnworth, to hospital doctors who diagnosed her.

Emma has remained in the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury, for the past few months.

Days ago, her kidneys failed and she was placed on the high dependency unit -- and on top of the national heart transplant list.

Emma's school choir sang a song of hope on national television last night as the school struggled to come to terms with Emma's battle for life.

Emma's twin brother Adam and older sister Christine, aged 15, have been shielded from the harsh reality of Emma's life-threatening situation.

A spokesman for the Freeman hospital this lunchtime said the operation was still in progress and described Emma's condition as "critical".