This is undoubtedly the hardest thing I've ever had to write and yet it is also a huge privilege.

Sadly when my Mum , Lynda, passed away last June Dad found it hard to overcome the grief, they had been married for 63 blissfully happy years, never spending a day or night apart, so without his beloved Lynda, Dad was bereft and he struggled to come to terms with the loss, although he desperately wanted to be there to look after me, and broken heart syndrome took it’s toll, causing his previously stable heart transplant to turn into heart failure.

My dad was truly loved by his family and also by so many in the heart transplant community. He was humbled recently when he received hundreds of cards and gifts celebrating the 25th anniversary of his heart transplant on April12th. To quote one of the heart failure patients who said of my Dad “ You are my inspiration to live life to the full and keep going regardless of a heart condition”. Dad said to me 'look at all these cards, people who don't know me and say I'm their inspiration and look at these lovely flowers & card someone called Sam has sent me and then there's this beautiful poster commemorating my transplant! I don't know what I've done to deserve such kindness but if I'm their inspiration I'd better try and make jolly sure I get through having the bi-ventricular pacemaker fitted! I don't want to let you or them down!' He tried so, so hard. And as for letting anyone down that is something he has never done.

My mind is full of wonderful memories of my childhood – riding high on Dad’s shoulders and feeling so safe and secure, running for a bus when I was little to go and see his Aunt Annie and thinking that my Dad could make me fly because he was so tall and my feet were not touching the ground any longer, Dad laughing so hard as I sat in the middle of what I thought was a Wendy house when in fact it was the dolls house he was making me! My long suffering Dad was my hairdressing model and sat with ribbons and curlers in his hair whilst having Sunday tea at home with family friends. Not once did he complain! In my teenage years when I started dating we had “the talk” and he told me the best way to deal with an over amorous admirer was and I quote “to poke his peeps out” – and yes Dad it works! Then in more recent years there are the memories of wonderful family holidays in our motor home, walking the hills around Fforest Fields near Builth Wells our favourite camp site in the world, athe DIY projects that we worked on together with Dad naming us ‘Codgeit and Scarper’ and all the charity events that we organised together to raise awareness of the need for organ donation and transplantation! - my Dad never, ever let me down, he kept every promise that he made me (even the one that he would live until he was 90!) he never made me cry (until now)- actually that's a lie, he always made me laugh until tears were streaming down my face! and the last words he spoke to me as he stroked my hand on the day he passed away was to tell me that he loved me and how proud he was of me; this was something he did every day of my life. How I will miss those words and the hugs that went with them and how I will cherish that memory. He was and always will be my hero! A gentle man in every sense of the word. We had 25 extra years of being together because of the generosity of another family who went through what I am going through now and for that I can only say thank you to everyone who is prepared to be a donor. Dad was loved and cherished and it is an enormous honour to be his daughter. His integrity, kindness, style and grace were ever present and never left him. His watchwords being those of his father Ernest who brought him up to believe that if you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all and I never did hear him say a bad word about anyone.

Thank you Dad for being the most wonderful father and for giving me the most wonderful life imaginable. Life will be hard without you but I take comfort in knowing that you are now reunited with Mum and that you will both be watching over me and guiding me through the rest of my life. Always loving and always loved, together forever. God Bless you both.

Elaine xxx