HEREFORDSHIRE'S youngest heart transplant patient has a special New Year resolution.

Matthew Jackson is going all out to show how donor cards make a difference by telling his own amazing story.

Ten years ago teenage Matthew - son of county estate agent Bill Jackson - had weeks left to live, struck down by a mystery virus that made his heart swell to four times its normal size and blocked it with a massive blood clot.

An intricate eight-hour transplant operation saved the life of the fit, rugby-loving youngster. Now aged 29, he is turning out each Saturday for Bromyard and making the most of his second chance.

People think him remarkable for playing regular rugby; he finds wonder in every day, from the joy of seeing the development of his little nephew to "a few beers" in Hereford on a Saturday night.

"I don't know whose heart I have. I would like them to know the benefit I got -10 good years with every day a bonus," said Matthew.

But if his new heart helped him beat the odds, a scary series of palpitations recently reminded him of what those odds are, sending Matthew back to the specialists and more medication.

The past 10 years have, he said, sometimes seemed easier on him than his family.

No time was tougher than when he first fell ill, floored by an unusual virus thought to have been a bad bout of 'flu.

Tests carried out at Hereford's Nuffield and County hospitals confirmed the worst. The virus had hugely enlarged Matthew's heart and caused a major blood clot.

At 19 his life hung in the balance. He went on the transplant list and into the awful limbo of lying immobile in intensive care, waiting for another life to end so his could start again.

Though it seemed like forever, the call came sooner than he or his family thought. Matthew's operation went ahead at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, on December 10, 1994.

Despite scientific developments, a heart transplant is still high-risk surgery with a real danger

of organ rejection. But by January 1995 Matthew was up and about at home.

Since then he has been to university, started work with his dad's estate agency in Leominster and resumed his rugby - a full life complemented by the friends and fun it has brought him.

"The way things have worked out, I don't know whether I would take the opportunity to have a normal life," he said.

That is the attitude Matthew brings back to hospital when talking to other transplant patients - young and old - about the way ahead.

Now, with organ donation at a national low, he wants the wider world to know what can be accomplished.

First, he plans a fund-raising walk around the county, which will also raise awareness and show what a difference donated organs make.

Then he will be sharing his story with anyone willing to listen so that he can make a difference, too.

It was, he said, an obligation he owed to the donor who gave him a second chance.

"They told me I had 10 weeks: a new heart gave me 10 years. And whatever happens from here it has all been worth it," says Matthew.

For information about organ donation contact the British Organ Donor Society on 0845 6060400. Leaflets are available at doctors' surgeries and chemists or to register on line go to www.uktrans-plant.org.uk

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