A HEART transplant patient who said his final goodbyes to family and friends at Christmas has returned from the brink of death and dedicated his life to helping other people.

Matthew Rumney, who grew up in the Chipping Sodbury area, was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy but until the beginning of 2008 had managed to cope with mild symptoms.

Last year, however, his heart began to fail and Matthew suffered agonising angina and a stroke. Doctors gave him less than a year to live.

Matthew, 36, said: "I thought 'This is it'. I was determined to make Christmas because I wanted to spend it with my family and girlfriend Jane Harris.

"But by New Year I was waiting to die. I said goodbye to family and friends.

"Every night I would kiss Jane like it was the last time."

For Matthew’s family, the trauma was history repeating itself as his younger brother Duncan died of the same congenital heart disease aged just 12.

"I was 15 and we went out for a walk," said Matthew. "My brother went a funny colour, he turned green and had a massive heart attack. He died in my arms."

But Matthew, who used to work in the motor trade, proved one of the lucky few as a midnight phone call confirmed a match with a heart donor.

"It was New Year’s Eve and my mobile went off," he said. "I thought who on earth is that and it was the heart and lung co-ordinator at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

"She said they had found a match and if I could get here in three hours, the heart was mine."

Despite complications and six weeks in a coma, Matthew made a full recovery and is learning to live with his new heart.

"Life is complicated, I have to take about 20 pills a day and be very careful around coughs and colds as they could hospitalise me," he said.

"But I am living. The man who donated his heart has given me the gift of life, it was literally the difference between life and death.

"I will never be able to thank him but if one other person can benefit the same way I have, everything has to be worth it."

Matthew, whose family run Old Sodbury Builders, is racing his Bentley Turbo R at Castle Coombe circuit on Saturday, June 27 to raise £7,000 to buy a probe for the hospital.

The equipment will enable doctors to match potential heart donors with people on the transplant waiting list much more quickly.

He is covering his prized car in heart-shaped stickers, which local businesses are being invited to sponsor.

"More than anything I want to raise awareness and get more donors on the register," said Matthew, who went to Chipping Sodbury School and now lives in Bristol.

"I was more than lucky, finding a match is like winning the lottery."

Last year in Britain, 82 successful heart transplants were carried out but 1,500 people died waiting to find a donor.

To sign up to the NHS donor register visit www.uktransplant.org.uk or to sponsor Matthew email teamtransplant@tiscali.co.uk or call 07971 825150.