- [Host] Meet Shea Patrick.

Shea is a senior at Lee High School and has a 3.78 GPA.

Shea excels in the visual arts and is working on a graphic novel with her friends.

She is also an animal lover who has had many family pets.

Shortly after birth, Shea and her sister Abby were diagnosed with heart disease and Shea received a transplant at seven months old.

Despite her challenges, Shea has continued to be a top student and participate in many artistic pursuits.

- Shea is an extremely bright student, but not just bright, she's extremely intuitive.

So she just, she makes coming school really enjoyable, her personality and her creativity really shines through, in everything that she does.

- I guess when you prepare yourself to just expect crazy stuff to happen at any moment, like not in a way that you're paranoid, just in a way that, hey, you know, stuff might not go the way I want it to today, and you know, that's okay.

You know, I think that's really helped me a lot.

And especially with my medical conditions and it's caused me to think a lot about the world around me and my life.

And I've kind of realized, you know, life's too short, just take the opportunities you can get.

- So I hope that Shea knows that she really does deserve to be the 2022 Young Hero, because she's worked so hard and she's always just been such a joy to have in the classroom.

We're all really proud of her here at Lee High School.

And we're glad that she got the award.

- [Host] For her strength of character and commitment to excellence in the face of extraordinary health obstacles, Shea is recognized by her school and our state as one of the five 2022 APT Young Heroes of Alabama.

Learn more about all of our Young Heroes at aptv.org/heroes.