Heart and soul: Poppy’s tough road to elite hockey

At three months old, Poppy Kelly had open-heart surgery after being diagnosed as having a ventricular septal defect.

Her parents, Chris and Jess, were given no hope.

“It was our first scan that we could see the hole in Poppy’s heart,” Jess said

“We were told that the fetus wouldn't survive and to terminate, then we got a second opinion and that second opinion was fate.

“We thought that if she could get through the pregnancy, we'll leave it up to her to decide.”

It was then they realised their baby girl was a fighter. 

“It wasn't until she was three months that the struggles were becoming obvious and she couldn't breathe,” Jess said.

“She had her surgery and five days later you know, she was starting to roll over,” Chris said.

Poppy is one of the lucky ones.

Her heart condition only ever required one operation, but she wears her scar like a badge of honour.

“It's something that I love to talk about. I love telling people, I'm quite proud of my scar, I think it's pretty sick,” she said.

In Australia, every three hours a baby is born with childhood-onset heart disease, like Poppy. 

That means eight families a day are affected. 

Poppy wants them to know her story because she's now a healthy, happy 16-year-old playing ice hockey at the highest level.

Watch the full story in the video player above.

If you’d like to donate or head to the ice, visit the Melbourne Ice Women website to purchase a teddy bear or the Trybooking website to buy tickets to watch a game.