Heart hero dies at 80
BRITAIN’S longest surviving heart transplant patient has died after championing organ donation for 38 years.
Steve Syer, 80, was one of the first people in the UK to have the surgery.
The 1984 op was carried out by Sir Magdi Yacoub and his team at Harefield Hospital in London.
Great-grandad Steve’s widow Chris, 77, of Hucclecote, Glos, said: “I remember the first night he came home from Harefield.
“He rolled over in bed and told me, ‘Chris, I can feel my heart beating’.”
The donor heart came from a young man killed in a road crash.
Chris added: “After that he devoted his life to promoting organ donation.”
The couple were on Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust organ donation committee. Chairman Ian Mean said: “They were a great double act.”