BERKELEY, Calif. (Diya TV) —  Nearly a decade after a life-saving heart transplant, Megan Mehta is turning her second chance at life into sustained action — launching a new foundation to support children facing the same fight she once did.

Mehta, now a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and working in the tech industry, still vividly remembers the day that changed everything: February 24, 2016. At 12 years old, she received a donor heart after months of declining health.

“I was fortunate enough to receive the gift of life in February 2016,” Mehta said to NBC Bay Area.

At 8, Mehta was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakens the heart muscle and makes it progressively harder to pump blood. Once an active child who played basketball and practiced tae kwon do, she soon struggled to walk without stopping for breath.

She spent weeks recovering at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, trying to regain strength while her condition worsened.

“During this period before my transplant, everything was just sort of gray,” Mehta told Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “I’m a kid, and I couldn’t do kid things. It just didn’t feel like I was living.”

By late 2015, her heart disease had advanced to heart failure. Dr. Seth Hollander, medical director of pediatric heart transplantation at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, determined that transplantation was likely her best option.

“When I first met Megan in October 2015, her heart disease had worsened to a point where we thought transplantation was probably the best option for her,” Hollander said.

She was placed on the transplant waiting list at the most urgent level. Four months later, a match was found.

“It felt like I’ve been freed from the shackles that were chaining me down,” Mehta said. “Immediately after the heart transplant, I felt like I could actually see the color in life.”

Recovery brought small but powerful reminders of survival. For months after surgery, Mehta says she could hear her heartbeat constantly — sitting still or running — and welcomed it as a reminder that she was alive.

She returned to school determined to make an impact. While classmates prepared to get their driver’s licenses, Mehta founded clubs promoting organ donation, including the first high school chapter of Student Organ Donation Advocates. She organized donor registration drives through Donor Network West and later represented Stanford Children’s at the 2023 Rose Parade, riding on the Donate Life float under the theme “Turning the Corner.”

“This is my donor’s legacy,” Mehta said at the time. “All I can do is make sure I live the best way I can to ensure that this gift does not go to waste.”

Now, on Valentine’s Day, Mehta is announcing the creation of the Megan Mehta Family Foundation, a nonprofit that will collect financial and in-kind donations for pediatric patients.

“We will be collecting financial donations as well as in-kind donations for other kids who are in a situation like me,” Mehta said.

An anonymous donor has already contributed more than 17,000 items — including art supplies and journals — which Mehta says were lifelines during her own long hospital stays.

“It was a very tumultuous time for me both physically and mentally, and having a creative outlet was my only way through — it was really my guiding light at that time,” she said.

The foundation plans to distribute donations to children receiving care at Stanford Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

“Providing all of these donations, these items, to these children, is going to be very essential for their recovery and for their emotional well-being during this difficult time,” Mehta said.

She plans to hold donation drives year-round.

Today, Mehta’s life looks dramatically different from the uncertain days before her transplant. She has graduated from UC Berkeley with two majors, traveled internationally and begun building a career in technology.

But she says every milestone traces back to one anonymous family’s decision to donate.

“I’m forever thankful for this gift of life because it gave me an opportunity to live — and live well,” Mehta said.

And nearly 10 years after her transplant, she is ensuring that other children waiting for their own second chance can hold onto hope — and perhaps, a box of art supplies — while they wait.