Birthday fundraiser to remember heart disease victim Shaun Miller

IT was a month-long love - a young couple united, then torn apart by heart disease. Now she is on a mission to keep his legacy alive.

Maddy Florescu

IT was a love that lasted only one month - a young couple united, then torn apart by heart disease.

But the bond forged between Madaleine Florescu and Shaun Miller - who touched hearts worldwide with his emotional farewell video - has sparked a special mission.

Madaleine, 16, who is also battling a heart defect, is determined to keep his inspirational legacy alive.

As she organises a fundraiser for the 18th birthday he never reached, she has made a plea that he not be forgotten.

The teens became best friends after meeting seven years ago at heart camp, with romance blooming weeks before he died in May.

"I want to tell people not to ever forget Shaun or his message to make the most of life," says Madaleine, of Caroline Springs.

"Around the world everyone was touched by that one video. He had the most positive impact on everyone and wanted people to live every day like it's their last."

Almost three million people have watched the YouTube video he bravely recorded to tell friends and family his second heart transplant was failing.

In the message, he said he'd had "an awesome ride" and urged people to live life to the fullest.

Sadly he lost his fight for life weeks later - a short way through his bucket list.

But he'd finally won the heart of the girl he had so persistently tried to woo.

"That month was one of the happiest I've ever had," Madaleine says.

"I'd always had a thing for Shaun, and I thought, if I don't do this now, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

His sudden death on May 26 was a day after their one-month anniversary.

His death came as a double blow.

Two months before, she lost another close friend, Paige Berry, 16, to heart disease. 

Shaun Wilson-Miller funeral

Now, the two funeral cards sit next to each other in her bedroom, incongruous on a bookshelf filled with pictures of teen idols such as Zac Efron and Pink.

Maddy, too, has forged her own life-and-death battles.

She was born with a defective mitral heart valve, enduring the first of five open-heart surgeries at six-months old.

"They have lost her a couple of times on the operating table over the years," mum Kristy Florescu says.

She has been prescribed blood-thinning medication for life, which makes her prone to internal bleeding and restricts her activities.

She can't play contact sport, drink alcohol, get her ears pierced or get a tattoo. A simple fall at school can be disastrous.

Madaleine says HeartKids has been a huge support and she wants to raise $18,000 for the organisation at the event, Shaun Miller's 18th Birthday Fundraiser.

It will be held at Musicland in Fawkner on January 25, two days after his birthday.

For details and to donate to the silent auction, email [e-mail]