BRAVE Pauline Ratcliffe is saying three cheers as she prepares to celebrate the fifth anniversary of her new heart.

At 2am on December 10, 1994, the bleeper sounded and Pauline was rushed from her home in Red Lees Road, Cliviger, to Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester.

Then aged 63, the former landlady was the oldest woman to have a heart transplant, but she amazed doctors with her speedy recovery.

Just days after, she was walking about the wards and was back home with her daughter and son-in-law, Jacqueline and Peter Connolly, in time to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

She was told her new heart would give her five to 10 years and she said today: "I've had five and that is five that I didn't think I would have! I had a virus in my heart and when they performed the operation the surgeons said my heart had been 'ready to burst.'"

She was diagnosed with the virus in the June and was waiting for a transplant from August. Her husband, Roy, died in the November and Pauline's health deteriorated so badly she weighed just six stone and struggled to eat.

Now she has to stick to a strict diet and avoid shellfish, milk, grapefruit and pate, but her appetite has returned and she has developed a liking for chocolate, which she never had before.

Unfortunately, the steroids she has to take have also had a knock-on effect of causing osteoporosis and she has to wear a brace to keep her backbone in line and still takes a cocktail of drugs each day.

Pauline ran the Kettledrum Inn, Mereclough, with her late husband for 16 years and Jacqueline continued to run the pub for 18 months after her mother's operation. Before that the family were mine hosts at the Waggoners, Manchester Road, Burnley for eight years.

She had always been very busy bringing up her two children Darren, who formerly worked for Burnley Council and now works for English Heritage and Jacqueline, who now works as a cloth technician for a Prestwich company.

She said: "I always carried a donor card before this happened and I would encourage anybody who was thinking about carrying one to do so.

"It is a great gift you can give to someone, but make sure your family is aware that it is your wish for your organs to be donated. Every year when it gets to my anniversary I say a little thank-you to whoever it was who gave me a second chance at life."

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