THANKS to a Tavistock girl, who ran a race in memory of her best friend who died last year, a department in Derriford Hospital has been able to acquire not one, but two pieces of much-needed equipment.

Megan Carr, 19, ran the Plymouth Half Marathon in April last year in memory of Emily Dodd, who died a year ago on January 5, aged 19.

Megan successfully completed the course, raising £1,300 for the Grown Up Congenital Heart (GUCH) department that cared for Emily, which meant the department could buy two portable 24 hour monitoring machines.

Megan said: 'I knew Emily since starting at Tavistock College in Year 7 in 2006 and we stayed best of friends from the day that we first met until the day that she passed away. I ran the half marathon in memory of Emily as I wanted to raise as much as I could for GUCH, as this was a part of the hospital that helped Emily hugely in the last few weeks of her life.'

Megan, who is currently in her second year at Plymouth University studying BA (Hons) business studies, presented the cheque to the department and said she aimed to undertake more fundraising events in the future to continue raising money for GUCH.

Emily was born on October 9 with two chambers to her heart rather than four and a 'very unique' plumbing system. She had undergone four major heart operations by the age of ten and radical surgery to change the flow of blood around her body.

In July 2013, she suffered a stroke and spent 12 weeks in hospital. She died at her home in Peter Tavy on January 5 surrounded by her family and beloved dog Shadow.

'Emily was an incredible woman,' said Megan.

'She always showed such strength and courage through her 19 years of life, she was an amazing inspiration and she has left a huge gap in many people's lives. I'm so glad that I managed to raise that amount of money in Emily's memory and I will definitely be doing more in the future.

'The support that I received from everyone, Emily's family and friends and those who were inspired by Emily's story, was absolutely incredible and I can't thank them all enough.'