I've had the gift of a normal life

UK's longest surviving heart-lung transplant recipient...

- BY ANDY LINES Chief Reporter

BRITAIN'S longest surviving heart and lung transplant recipient is calling for more donors as she marks 38 years since her surgery.

Katie Mitchell was 15 when she had the lifesaving double operation that is still rare today, with only about five carried out in the UK each year.

She said: "Thanks to organ donation, I was given the gift of a normal life.

"I think about my donor a lot, especially on the anniversary of the transplant. I think about their family and what they must have felt at the time. I just know my donor was a young female. Her family made that decision at a terrible time in their lives. I am so grateful.