HE HAS lived with a stranger’s heart beating inside him for longer than the one he was born with.

It is 27 years since Andy Powell from Hamble had a heart transplant to save his life – making him one of just 100 people in the world to survive past the 25-year milestone.

And the 54-year-old has made it his mission to ensure every minute is lived to the full in honour of his donor and everyone waiting for a transplant.

With so many patients on the waiting list, Andy hopes his story will encourage others to sign the organ donation register.

He also wants to inspire other transplant patients by how he has packed so much into his active life.

It was in 1986 that he woke up in a hospital bed with tubes coming from him. Andy thought he was having a nightmare, but with doctors suddenly surrounding him and asking if he knew his name, it quickly became clear this was real.

He had no idea that the heart beating inside him was not the one he was born with until doctors explained that he had just undergone a five-hour heart transplant operation.

The previous few weeks had been a blur for Andy whose breathlessness a few months earlier had been the first symptoms of cardiomyopathy – which causes an irregular heartbeat and heart failure.

Having been a fit and healthy 26-year-old, enjoying his passion for windsurfing just two months earlier, Andy had assumed the breathlessness was a sign of age.

But in November 1985, doctors made the diagnosis and within weeks he was unconscious in hospital.

On New Year’s Eve, his wife Becky was given the devastating news that a heart transplant was the only option to save him.

Becky said: “I was absolutely devastated.

“I never thought he would get one in time. He had gone downhill so quickly, I thought he was going to die.

“They let him come home for a day at Christmas. Later we found out they only did that because they didn’t expect him to live much longer.”

But within 48 hours Becky got the call to say that a heart had been found and that Andy was going to get it.

Andy was blue-lighted from Southampton General Hospital to Papworth Hospital in London.

Becky said: “In a way, we were lucky he went downhill so quickly because there was no time for the assessments transplant patients usually have. “He just went straight to the top of the list.

“But those five hours felt like 20 and everything goes through your head.

“It was tough because you feel so lucky because your loved one has a chance of being OK, but another family is grieving and you are very aware of that.”

Having been oblivious to even being in need of a heart transplant, Andy adjusted remarkably to the news of what he had just been through.

He said: “I never really struggled with the idea of having a different heart. I just thought ‘it’s done’.

“I was given a second chance and I wanted to make the most of it, for the person who donated it and for everyone still waiting for their heart. I owe it to them.”

Remarkably Andy was back at home in February, back at work as an aircraft fitter within five months and, a lot sooner than his doctor’s would have wished, he was back windsurfing after six.

Thanks to new rejection drugs, Andy was able to keep healthy and lead a normal life, but a side-effect of those drugs meant that his kidneys eventually failed and 13 years later, he needed a kidney transplant.

This time it was his wife who stepped in after tests revealed she was the perfect match.

She said: “I never questioned it. If someone could donate the organs of their dead relative to save someone else, I thought it was the least I could do.

“Thanks to the heart donor, I got my husband and our life together back and this was my chance to ensure I did all I could to maintain that.”

The operation proved a success and the pair were back travelling the world, windsurfing in some of the globe’s most glamorous locations.

Andy, who now runs his own company AP Tools, said: “The doctors told me I had five years with my new heart, but here I am today. I want to say ‘thank you’ to that family that allowed me to have this heart.

“It’s given me a second life and hopefully they can see that I have made the most of it. I’ve had 27 years that I would have never have had and I’ve packed a lot into them.

“Some people have to wait for their heart for so long that they forget what it is like to be fit and healthy.

“When they then get their transplant, many fall into the trap of living life like a patient instead of making the most of their new lives.

“I hope other transplant patients can see me enjoying my life and take inspiration from that, knowing that they can live their lives how they want to.

“Even 27 years down the line I am still out there doing all these sports.”

Andy and Becky welcome the opt out system introduced in Wales earlier this year, where everyone is presumed to be a donor unless they have specifically opted out.

Becky said: “I totally understand how somebody wouldn’t want to donate their loved one’s organs because it happens at a time when they are grieving the most.

“I feel sorry for the medics who have to ask the questions but hopefully this will get people talking about it so relatives know each others’ wishes.

“I’d urge people to think how many people can gain from donating your organs and I hope relatives can take some comfort knowing that their loved one helped to save so many people’s lives.

“I feel so much for the families that have to go through that awful wait for an organ.

“When Andy goes for his check-ups we see over the course of visits people gradually deteriorate as they are left waiting for months and months, then the next time we go, we see there’s a little note on the wall to say that person didn’t get a heart in time. It’s just awful.”

Andy added: “I was given a second chance at life. So many more could be given the same if more people signed up to the donor register.”