A BUBBLY North Yorkshire teenager who cheated death twice has qualified to take part in the World Transplant Games next summer - for the second year running.

Hannah Swift, 17, of Scarborough Road, Helmsley, who survived a heart transplant when she was nine and battled with cancer at 14, scooped gold medals in the obstacle race and ten-pin bowling, and silver medals in badminton and ball throw at the British Transplant Games in Norwich on Monday.

Hannah was one of more than 500 competitors who competed in a variety of events from athletics to tennis, and represented the hospital where she had her transplant, Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

"It was a good day," said Hannah, who has a sister, Katie, age 20, a student in Leeds. "I'll be in the adult team next summer, so it'll be hard, but good."

Hannah picked up two silver medals and a bronze in the badminton events at the World Transplant Games at Nancy in France last summer.

"I had a new heart when I was nine and they invite anyone who has had a transplant to go along to the games," said Hannah. "I've been going for a few years and know a lot of people now, so I go more for the social side."

When she was nine Hannah caught a viral infection that caused her heart to swell, then fail. When surgeons gave her a transplant only a tiny part of her heart was still beating, but the brave girl survived.

Then when she was 14 she contracted cancer of the lymph glands caused by the anti-rejection drugs she was taking for her new heart.

The Ryedale teenager was given just weeks to live, but underwent six months of chemotherapy and has been clear for two years and eight months.

As well as getting into training for next summer's world transplant games, Hannah, who qualified as a beauty therapist at York College and runs her own business from home, is looking forward to opening her own salon, Beautilicious, in the next couple of weeks. This will be in a front room of Stilworth House bed and breakfast, in Church Street, Helmsley, which is run by her mother, Carol.

Her father, Frank, runs Swift Fisheries, in Scarborough Road, Helmsley.

Updated: 10:39 Thursday, August 05, 2004