The parents of a “brave” and “positive” 17-year-old who died after a life-long battle with her health have told how they are keeping her memory alive.

Caitlin Goodsell, of Maidstone, was born with an extremely complicated and life-threatening heart condition which was only discovered when she was eight weeks old.

It left her with a number of holes in her heart and doctors were surprised that she had survived.

From the age of four months, Caitlin had a number of operations at the Royal Brompton Hospital, in London, and finally had a Fontan procedure when she was three years old.

This allowed her heart to pump in a different way so she could live but six months later she had a stroke to the left side of her brain, taking away the use of her right-hand side.

In 2018, when she was 13, the teenager had another stroke due to a heart block.

Medics discovered her heart was continually being blocked for nine seconds at a time during the night, causing the organ to stop beating.

Her dad Barry Goodsell said: “She was very close to passing then because her heart kept stopping.”

The Cornwallis Academy pupil was fitted with a pacemaker to help monitor and control her condition and she was put on the heart transplant list.

In 2021, her parents received the “miracle call” from Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, saying they had found a match.

Her mum Ingrid Goodsell added: “We got the phone call saying they had a heart match about 4am. We were blue-lighted over there and she had an 18-hour heart operation. She should not have made it but she did.”

Caitlin then spent nine months in intensive care recovering but during this time her lungs collapsed, her kidneys failed and she had sepsis twice.

“It was just horrendous,” Ingrid added. “But finally she was fit enough to come home. She bounced back unbelievably. She said she was going to go back to school.”

In September 2022, Caitlin started sixth form and was studying for her A-levels but at the end of March 2023 was rushed into hospital as she had stopped breathing.

Following numerous scans and checks, the doctors could not find what was wrong and she was discharged.

On April 1, 2023, the 17-year-old died at her home in Kingswood, Maidstone.

Ingrid, 52, said: “All her life she had a struggle. She went through everything. I always knew she would not become an old person but you always hope and then you get the miracle call of a heart transplant.

“It was a miracle and that is why it felt extra cruel.

“One of the pieces of artwork she made during art therapy at Demelza said ‘Always do the incredible’. When we saw that we knew that we did need to do that.

“That was who she was, she just motivated people in so many ways.”

Bethany Harding, of Cornwallis Academy, in Loose, who recently won Performing Arts Teacher of the Year for the Maidstone District, has also paid tribute to her pupil and dedicated her award to Caitlin.

She said: “Caitlin was a strong, kind and talented student, whose determination to perform on stage, no matter the obstacles was commendable.

“As teachers, we have those special students who leave lasting impressions on us as people and Caitlin has most certainly done that for me."

Mum Ingrid added: “She was so busy trying to live. She touched a lot of people and has left a big hole in our lives.

“She was so positive about everybody. At school, she was so loved. She did not care about who they were, if they were a kind person they were in her gang.

“She never saw herself as disabled. She focused on what she could do, not what she could not. She would always find a way. She was very determined. From four years old she had to live by that.

“She was so brave, positive, she just got on with it.”

Caitlin leaves behind her dad Barry, mum Ingrid, and older brother Sam, 20.

And to keep her memory alive, the family has been trying to “always do the incredible” to make her proud.

Mum-of-two Ingrid has braved her fear of flying insects by visiting a beehive and dared the cold by going wild river swimming.

Caitlin loved animals, especially greyhounds, so the family donated more than £5,000 they have raised in her memory to the Greyhound Trust’s Croftview Kennels in Harvel, Meopham.

Demelza, a charity which provides care to seriously ill babies, supported the family throughout Caitlin’s life and the youngster was even the voice of their TV advert in 2017.