“What does happen is the fact that transplantation is obviously a life-transforming and life-saving procedure,” says Professor Gurch Randhawa, an organ donation specialist and director of the Institute for Health Research at the University of Bedfordshire. “Clearly when people need a transplant their health and wellbeing is deteriorating. Physically, psychologically and emotionally they are becoming drained. So a lot of patients who then receive a transplant will feel energised. Mr Mashford is a great example of somebody going through that process. When you are requiring a heart, you are physically and emotionally lower than low but then you are given what is, quite literally, this new lease of life. Mr Mashford will want to take full opportunity of every second he has got. But it is not due to science.”