Last year Mrs Kamara underwent a life changing heart transplant. However, the journey there was not easy.

"As far as I'm concerned, I used to be healthy," she said. "Then it all started when I went to the United States and I started feeling sick."

After visiting a doctor to get to the bottom of her illness, she was diagnosed with a heart murmur.

She started treatment but she didn't feel as though she was getting better.

As she was so unwell, doctors told her she should not have children. However, she ended up becoming pregnant with her first son, Matthew, in August 2008.

"It wasn't easy," she said. "I finally had to give birth to him at 32-weeks, he was 4.2 pounds. I had preeclampsia."

Then in 2010, she had surgery to repair her heart valves.

"After the surgery, I found out that my valves were enlarged and that it wasn't really actually sealed up," she said.

In 2011, Mrs Kamara moved to Australia, where she began feeling sick on and off.

Then, in 2013, she became pregnant again - this time with her daughter, Gabrielle.

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"It was really hard. At 26-weeks, I had an issue with dilating and I was going to give birth to her," she said.

"But I said, because of my faith, there is no way this baby can come. I'll definitely go to the final stage. Finally, I had her at 32-weeks. By God's grace, I pulled through that too.

"When I was at the hospital, a doctor advised me that with the health issues that I had, I had to see a cardiologist.

"My health kept deteriorating, it was really going bad.

"I'm losing weight, I have so much fluid in my body, I'm throwing up, I can't eat."

Travelling to Hobart to fix her mitral valve was an option, but she was uncertain about having another open heart surgery despite urging from her cardiologist.

Then while visiting the US in 2016, she became very unwell.

"I was having a cardiac but I didn't know," she said.

After visiting a clinic she was sent to on a hospital in Dallas, where she stayed for 18 days.

"The doctor said to me, 'your valves are closing down, did you know that?'"

"I said to them, 'if they're closing down they have not yet closed down, so there is still hope'.

"I ended up having a second open heart surgery, where my mitral valve was replaced and then the other one was repaired."

She said having a mechanical valve was an unpleasant experience.

"When you're sleeping, when everyone is quiet, it sounded like a clock ticking. It was really disturbing, but that's what I had to live with," she said.

"It wasn't an easy process. It was really tough, but, I was still managing. I would still go out with the kids, I would go to church as usual. I would still do things because I said to myself, 'there is no point in sitting at home and allowing depression to come over me'.

"I had faith in God that I would pull through. I had that determination in me.

"If you're going through a situation, don't let the situation overwhelm you."

Eventually, Mrs Kamara got to the point where she could hardly breathe after walking down stairs.

"I love my high heels, I love my makeup - I couldn't do those things that much because I didn't have any strength," she said.

However, she stayed positive.

"Every time I looked in the mirror, I said, 'baby girl, you're going to make it'," she said.

"The worst thing was at night I couldn't sleep. I had to kneel down the whole night, because if I laid down I felt like I was drowning.

"Sometimes I wouldn't sleep because I was scared of shutting my eyes.

"Every time I would wake up, I would lift up my hands and thank God that I'm alive."

Mrs Kamara had a defibrillator surgically inserted in April 2018 after her heart function dropped to just 10 per cent.

One day her husband, Abdul-Karim, came home from work and was concerned with how swollen she was.

After an x-ray revealed just how full of fluid she was, her doctor said she needed a heart transplant.

"It was hard receiving the news," she said. "I had a lot of things running through my mind.

"But then I summoned courage. Seeing myself wasting away was really, really hard."

Mrs Kamara was put on the waitlist in May.

"I had lost my complexion, everything was shutting down. I was like a living corpse," she said.

Despite that, she kept doing things that brought her joy.

"I love to sing, I would go to church," she said.

"As usual I made it a duty to do my housework and everything, pick up my kids from school," she said.

Mrs Kamara was at home cooking a few months later when she received news that would change her life.

After noticing she hadn't gotten any calls for a while, she picked up her phone and saw voicemail messages from The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.

It was then she heard the words she had been waiting for.

"Hannah, we've got a potential heart," the doctor said.

"He said, 'you need to be in Melbourne in two hours. We've been calling you. Where have you been?'" Mrs Kamara said.

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She was rushed onto a flight to Melbourne, and later underwent the transplant surgery.

"The next day I woke up, and I ate, and I called my husband," she said.

"They were getting ready for church. They couldn't believe it was me speaking to him."

She said her recovery was not an easy thing for the family, as she was in Melbourne and her family was still in Launceston.

"We battled through it, which was not very easy," she said.

"I like to see how my kids are going. Every day I would check on them in the morning.

"I had to feel the pain and leave them. Sometimes things we hold onto can be taken care of even when we're not around. I learned that with my kids."

She had to stay in Melbourne to recover from the surgery for about three months.

In September, Mrs Kamara flew to Launceston for a surprise Father's Day visit.

"It was just for the weekend, because I had to to talk to the hospital to let me come," she said.

Mrs Kumara said the transplant had been a miracle.

"It was not easy, but I had to fight against all odds. With my faith in God, I want to say I feel blessed," she said.

"I'm living with another person's heart. I will always be grateful to that family.

"Even with everything I would smile, but today I think my smiles are brighter and wider.

"I don't have a heart to give again, but there are many ways I can still give a piece of my heart."