Emotional reunion for Norfolk donor family after meeting man who received their son's heart
Watch the moment Jane Blake listens to her son's heart again
The mother of a 30-year-old man who died suddenly says it's been 'wonderful' and 'marvellous' to listen to his heart beating again after it was used in an organ transplant.
Jane Blake, from Great Yarmouth, says she has struggled since her beloved son Kitt died suddenly in spring 2020.
But she says meeting the man whose life he saved has been a comfort.
"I heard it beating. It was just wonderful, just to hear it beating away in his chest, marvellous," she told ITV News Anglia.
"I did not know how I was going to feel but now I have met Tim and the family I feel much better about it."
Kitt Blake's heart went to grandfather Tim Head, 64, from Corby in Northamptonshire who says he would not be alive today without it, and that he could not be more grateful.
"Thank you is not enough, is it? How do you say thank you?
"I had no life and if I didn't have it I would not be here at all. I was very ill."
Mr Head, a bricklayer, is now back at work full time. His wife Bernie Head, 68, says they think about Kitt Blake all the time.
"There's not a day goes by that we don't think about him," she admitted.
"Like I said we've got children and that so we compare it and think what they're going through but no they've been lovely and feel like our family now."
Medical staff who supported both Kitt's family and Tim's through the transplant procedure were also on hand to witness the emotional reunion.
"I feel I'm really privileged actually in my role," said Natalie Ashley - an organ donation specialist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
"It is the only positive thing that you can offer families at the worse time of their lives, to give their loved one the chance to save a life for their legacy to continue," she added.
Monday 18 September marks the start of Organ Donation week - a national campaign aimed at encouraging more people to register as organ donors.
According to the NHS, only around one in 100 people who die in the UK are usually able to be donors. It makes the gift of life that Kitt Blake gave, even more special.
In fact he did not just save Tim - the 30-year-old's organs helped three other people too.
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