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Heart transplant gives husband and dad new hope for the future
SOME presents are too big to wrap up and put under the Christmas tree – no one knows that better than Tina and Rosemary Phillips.
The mum and daughter are looking forward to their best Christmas ever after husband and dad Martin was given a new lease of life thanks to a heart transplant operation.
Mr Phillips, 49, from Normanton, was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle – several years ago and saw his condition gradually deteriorate.
At the height of his illness, he could barely walk a few yards without getting out of breath and last Christmas, he was placed on the urgent transplant register.
If a donor heart was not found quickly, there was a strong likelihood he would die before ever getting the chance to put up another Christmas tree.
Then, just hours before he was due to have a temporary 'mechanical' heart inserted earlier this year, the family's prayers were answered.
A donor match was found and on July 4, Mr Phillips had surgery at Manchester's Wythenshawe hospital.
Mr Phillips, who worked in Wakefield Council's education department before taking early retirement in November last year, is now in glowing health.
"I feel on top of the world," he said. "I feel like a different man altogether – sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe it. I have not had a good Christmas for several years. I wasn't able to eat properly and the family Christmas celebrations were a bit subdued.
"This year I am just going to enjoy being with my family and having a nice meal."
And Mr Phillips is looking forward to taking up golf and cricket again, and is even thinking of coming out of retirement and going back to work.
And 2009 is set to be his best year yet, when he celebrates not only his 50th birthday but also his 25th wedding anniversary.
"This Christmas will be so different, Martin can enjoy his Christmas dinner for a start!," Mrs Phillips said.
"It's the first time in five or six years we are going to have a normal Christmas and we will enjoy every minute of it.
"Sometimes I look at him and just get tearful. It's amazing, and definitely the best Christmas present we have ever had."
The Phillips family are eternally grateful to the donor's family and acutely aware that someone died in order for Martin to have a new life.
Mr Phillips said it was "difficult to put into words" the gratitude he feels, and the sense of what he has regained.
He has now written to his donor family to thank them and is urging other people to sign onto the national donor register.
"It's a difficult decision and you can understand some people not being sure," he said.
"This Christmas I will be thinking of the person who passed away to save me. They saved my life."
Ring the NHS Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400 to register and give someone the gift of life after your death.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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