END THE DONOR SHORTAGE

WILL POPE, 29, a film-maker from North london, was on the urgent heart transplant list with just days to live when we told his story to launch a campaign calling for people to sign up as organ donors — 70,000 did so in just seven weeks. He says: EVERY New Year’s Eve I throw a fantastic party, surrounding myself with the people I love most, and we all celebrate. Not just the start of a new year but the fact I’m still here — because it’s the anniversary of my heart transplant on December 31, 2012, when I was 21.

I’m so grateful to have shared my story with the Daily Mail to launch the campaign that month. I know many lives would have been saved as a result — lives like mine.

When I was 16 I developed heart failure, possibly caused by a virus attacking my heart.

Despite having a mechanical pump implanted, my health continued to decline and by 2012 I was really unwell. I was swollen like a balloon with fluid in my abdomen and was so breathless I could walk only a few metres.

I was admitted to Harefield Hospital in August, and put on the urgent transplant list. I just longed to be back home with Mum and Dad. But as my organs failed, I had to be connected to a ventilator as well as a machine that took over the function of my heart and lungs; I was also on dialysis.

On Christmas Day, my parents brought my brothers Matt and Guy, then 17 and 14, to the hospital for what could be their last goodbye. I had just days to live — my surgeon said I was ‘heading for a cliff’.

I’d come to terms with dying when the Mail ran my story on December 22, 2012. I was too weak to read the newspaper but my mum told me about the campaign and the continued coverage — I remember hoping that even if the appeal proved too late for me, it would prevent other parents going through the same ordeal. I was amazed and humbled by the huge response from readers after my story ran.

Then, on December 31, I was told a heart had been found for me. I recall looking at my arms and hands — just skin and bone — and wondering how I could possibly survive surgery.

I later learned my donor was Tom Ince, a 20-year-old electrical engineer apprentice who’d been in a car crash. His parents took the incredibly brave decision to honour his wishes to donate his organs.

After 200 days in hospital I returned home. Little things — like the sun on my face — felt incredible. Within a few months, I was able to start exercising.

Almost a year after my transplant, I met Tom’s dad Steve. He’d read my story and messaged me on Facebook when he realised I must have received Tom’s heart.

It was incredibly emotional and surreal to be in

the same room, knowing his son’s heart was keeping me alive. When I asked how I could repay him for this incredible gift, Steve said the most wonderful thing: ‘Just live, living is enough.’

I’ve never forgotten those powerful words. I work long days in a high-stress environment but I love packing each day to the full, reminding myself every day that I had the greatest gift of all — the chance to live — and thanks to the Good Health campaign, others will hopefully have this chance, too.