'I've been very privileged, and I am still very privileged, to be here'

ALMOST four decades on, retired Heaton architect David Yates can remember vividly being told he would get a heart a transplant.

- SAM VOLPE

David, 84, is the longest surviving adult heart transplant patient to have undergone his transplant at the Freeman Hospital, just minutes from his home.

To mark the 40th anniversary of heart transplant operations at the Freeman, he told The Journal how moved he remains by the gift of life he received.

David was speaking at the Freeman's Institute of Transplantation, where staff and patients past and present came together to mark the anniversary of Pauline Duffy's heart transplant in May 1985.

David's own transplant took place on January 5 1988.

He said: "I was the 44th transplant and the 40th heart. Kayleigh [Davidson-Olley] of course is the oldest living heart transplant, while I am the longest surviving adult [who had] congenital heart transplant patient.

"I trained as an architect and was at work on the day I got the call.

"My heart had given out about three to four years prior.