A groom who almost missed his wedding after going into severe heart failure got a life-saving match less than 24 hours after doctors launched an appeal.

Ali Mckay was so close to death when he tied the knot with wife Catriona that he was put on the “urgent” transplant list after the ceremony.

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Doctors were astounded when an organ became available just a day later – something the hospital said was a record.

Ali, 32, is urging people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register and now give talks about his own experience.

He said: “I want to raise awareness and get people to have the conversation about what their wishes are. I’m living proof it works.

“Too often people hear of organ donations but they’ve never met anyone who’s had a transplant.

“I see shock on their faces when I tell them because I just look ordinary.

“Don’t take that precious gift with you if you can save somebody’s life.”

Ali is only too aware how lucky he was to find a match as medical staff told him his was in such a poor condition he had only weeks to live. He added: “They told me there was an audible gasp in the theatre when they cut open my chest and realised how badly damaged my heart was.

“I feel very blessed. I’d always known I’d reach the stage where a heart transplant would be needed.

“My wife was an absolute rock and never left my side.”

Ali’s heart began to fail in 2011 and it was hoped a pacemaker would help his symptoms. But his condition got worse as he prepared for his wedding in 2012.

There was serious doubt whether he would be strong enough to see his bride walk down the aisle.

Ali, of Newport, Fife, said: “My best man said I would make it even if he had to carry me there and I did.”

He was born with transposition of the greater vessels – a congenital heart defect. The condition meant the two main blood vessels leaving the heart, the pulmonary artery and the aorta, were the wrong way round.

His parents were told he wouldn’t live to see 21. But he defied the odds and trained to be a chef.

Ali – on immunosuppressants for life so his body won’t reject the new heart – said: “I only realised how ill I was afterwards when I started to feel like there was a ball of energy living inside me. I’d never had a situation where my legs got tired first and gave up before my heart.”

He has chosen not to receive any details about his donor but says that, as the new “custodian” of his heart, he lives every day to the full.

Two hundred heart transplants are carried out annually in the UK but 1300 people die on the transplant list before a match can be found.

Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Ali’s story is fantastic. When someone with severe heart failure is placed on the urgent transplant register, they’re critically ill, so time is of the essence to find them a suitable heart. Sadly, organs are not always available.”

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