'I couldn't sleep for days after undergoing my heart transplant'

Mehreen Ahmed had never known a strong heartbeat. In 2023, the 23-year-old who suffered from cardiomyopathy had a successful heart transplant. A year later the Nottingham University graduate ran the Great North Run

A young woman said her new heartbeat was so strong after a transplant she was unable to sleep for days. Mehreen Ahmed, 23, went from gasping for breath after just reading in bed - to completing the Great North Run just a year later.

She was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at the age of 15, a condition which causes the heart's muscle walls to become thin and stretched, so they cannot pump blood around the body properly.

Medication kept her heart stable but last year revising for final exams at the University of Nottingham she was so ill she "couldn't walk 10 steps". She was taken to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and had her new heart in June 2023.

Mehreen from Louth in Lincolnshire, told the BBC: "You do feel like you're in someone else's body, because I had never known a strong heartbeat. "It was so strong that usually you can't sleep for the first couple of days. You know when you change a clock in the house and the ticking puts you off?"

Now, Miss Ahmed is hoping to encourage more people to donate this “beautiful gift” especially ethnic minority groups. Figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show that, in the 12 months to April, only 32% of families of patients from ethnic minority groups agreed to donate their relative's organs, compared with 65% for white donors.

A year after the transplant, Miss Ahmed graduated from university with a degree in neuroscience. "It was very emotional," she recalled. "I remembered my donor because without them, I wouldn't be crossing that stage and throwing my hat in the air."

In September, she took part in the Great North Run to give something back to the city where she received her new heart. She added: "I don’t think I will ever be able to fully express my gratitude to a family who had to suffer such tremendous loss and give a final gift so precious, so that someone like me could live again."