A TRANSPLANT patient from Ringwood has had the unusual experience of coming face to face with her own heart, three months after it was removed from her body.

Jennifer Sutton, 23, underwent a life-saving heart operation in June, at the Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, and has just travelled to London where the organ is on display as part of an exhibition called The Heart.

She also organised a netball tournament, fete and live music event at the weekend at Poulner Junior School to raise funds for the hospital's transplant unit.

Speaking from the exhibition she said: "Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange.

"Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset.

"It's tremendous it has become such an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation."

Jennifer suffered from restrictive cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart muscle to gradually stiffen up and eventually causes death if the sufferer does not undergo a transplant.

She wanted to use her own story to help raise awareness of heart and circulatory disease, which causes four out of ten deaths in the UK each year, and the need for more organ donors.

Heart patients currently wait an average of 103 days for a suitable organ to become available, a wait that for 28 people last year was too long.

Jennifer said: "I would not be here and able to look at my heart if were not for the wonderful person who left me their heart and to whom I am forever indebted.

"Through their gift they have truly given me life. I hope one day to thank the family. I had learned not to think about the future. Suddenly it's all before me and I am so happy to be alive."