Hannah Jones was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old. Chemotherapy put her into remission but doctors then discovered she had cardiomyopathy, a serious disease where the heart muscle becomes swollen and sometimes fails. In other words it is the chemotherapy that caused a hole in her heart, which has weakened as her body has grown.

Hannah Jones, 13, said she could not face any more operations. She had been offered a transplant in July 2007 but explained she did not want to go through with it. She said that the operation didn’t have full chances of being a success, and even if it would have had a good end, it would have been followed by constant medication.

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association's ethics committee, said a child of Hannah's age was able to make an informed decision to refuse treatment. He said: "I think some doctors take the view that they must intervene and they are making that decision in what they see as the best interests of the patient.”

The 13-year-old has undergone nearly a dozen surgeries and says she's "been in the hospital too much." She tells Sky News she'd rather spend her remaining time at home. Hannah judged it would be better to return to Marden near Hereford and enjoy time with her brother Oliver, 11, and sisters Lucy, ten, and Phoebe, four, under the expert care of her 42-year-old mother. Health authorities have accepted her decision after interviewing Hannah.

Her story surfaced when her parents complained about hospital officials, who'd reportedly threatened legal action if Hannah wasn't brought to the hospital. Mr. Jones told BBC: "The threat that somebody could come and forcibly remove your daughter from you against her wishes, against our wishes, was quite upsetting really." Moreover Dr. John Jenkins, a pediatrician and chairman of Britain's General Medical Council standards and ethics committee, said children who have lengthy illnesses become "experts in their own condition quite early in life." But Hannah’s plea was conveyed to barristers at the high court in London who decided she was mature enough to make the decision for herself and the order was thrown out.

Hospital officials said it is standard procedure to make sure both the child and their parents understand the consequences of any medical decision.

Nevertheless not having the transplant means Hannah may be left with just six months to live. She told Sky News: "I've been in hospital too much. I've had too much trauma."

There's not a month or year that goes by where I have not had medical treatment.” Sitting beside her mother Kirsty, an intensive care nurse, the teenager said she now wanted to have a holiday with her family in Disney World, Florida. And her parents had sought publicity about her daughter's condition because they had been unable to get the travel insurance that would allow Hannah to make the trip.