Minnie Duggleby, from Little Driffield, East Yorkshire, died earlier this year at Leeds General Infirmary after being born with heart and breathing defects.

Parents Ami and Liam asked if Minnie's organs could be donated and her kidneys were transplanted into a young adult.

Speaking about their daughter's death, the couple said they were proud she had been able to help another person to live.

Mrs Duggleby said: "If I could have torn out my own heart to save her, I would have, but nothing could change Minnie's fate."

Liam and Ami with eldest daughter Lilly and Minnie in an incubator after she was born

A scan just after Minnie's birth revealed a defect called a tracheoesophageal fistula, which meant the pipe connecting Minnie's throat to her stomach hadn't connected properly.

Minnie was taken to Leeds General Infirmary overnight for emergency surgery which proved to be a success.

However doctors then detected Minnie was suffering from a heart murmur and part of her heart was severely underdeveloped.

If she was going to survive the youngster would need three open heart operations before she was five and was not expected to live past 30.

Doctors also found she was missing vital muscles from her throat that would need operating on.

Ami said: "It was devastating, she was only 24 hours old and then I'm 28 - to think she would only live to my age.

On what was due to be the date Minnie was born, Liam and Ami agreed to let Minnie die peacefully.

Minnie was then taken to surgery, where her organs were removed, before she was taken back to her parents who dressed her in an outfit they had requested.

Ami said: "When we went home I desperately didnt want to go but I needed to."

"It was probably the most horrendous walk out of hospital in my life as on Clarendon Wing there's people there with their babies and we had to sort funeral plans."

Within two weeks of her death Minnie's funeral was held, with Ami and Liam having to go through the heartbreaking trauma of registering her birth and death at the same time.

The couple have since received a letter of thanks from the person who was gifted with Minnie's kidneys.

Ami said: "I could honestly burst with pride for Minnie. There's a part of Minnie and a part of me in that person and without it they might never have got a donor."