James Got a Heart Transplant in His Thirties, and Then Became a Pro Athlete

What, like it's hard?

This post is presented in partnership with Donor Mate.

When you are young and healthy, the last thing you expect to be told is that you need a heart transplant. In fact, when you’re just getting your life started, it’s normal to feel like you’ll live forever.

As James Sheppard tells Student Edge, that’s exactly how he felt before he started experiencing an irregular heartbeat in his late 20s.

"It felt like there was a drummer playing inside my chest, but they didn’t know how to hold a beat," he says.

"I put up with that for a couple of years, just because I was a young bloke that thought I was invincible."

After waking up from gallbladder surgery for an unrelated issue, James was informed that his heartbeat was irregular. Over the next two years, doctors finally diagnosed him with cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body.

The only real treatment: a heart transplant. The problem: only around two per cent of people who die in hospital have the chance to become organ donors. Of that, only about 14 per cent of young people are on the organ donor list, despite them having the healthiest parts fit for donation.

"Obviously, it’s not something you expect to be going through in your late 20s or early 30s, so it was a huge shock to me," James says.

"It was a surreal and pretty challenging time."

Pictured: James Sheppard (supplied).

James wasn’t able to be listed for a heart transplant straight away. Considering he was only 42 kilograms and wheelchair bound, his doctors sent him on a mission to gain three extra kilos.

"Basically, I was that frail that I wouldn’t have been well enough to survive the transplant surgery," he explains.

"I spent the next two to three weeks eating as much as I could. The dietetics team at The Alfred in Melbourne were awesome, and with them and the physio team I was able to gain that weight and got listed for a transplant."

Eight months later in May 2018, James got the call to tell him they’d found an organ donor. As James explains, he went into the heart transplant surgery with a positive mindset.

"My full-time job had basically been going to the rehab gym to be as fit and healthy as possible, so when the phone rang, I was ready to go," he says.

After James' surgery, he signed up for a three-month rehabilitation program in the gym at The Alfred. However, he was encouraged to continue exercising once the program had ended.

"I sort of picked up cycling as the thing I’d chose," he says.

"I had some family members that had bikes and would ride socially on the weekend, and I always had the goal that I wanted to cycle to work."

Since then, James has completed United Energy’s Around the Bay bike ride in Melbourne, in which he rode 213 kilometres in nine hours. On top of that, he also competed at the World Transplant Games in 2019.

"It was an incredible week in Newcastle in the United Kingdom, not only being able to ride for the country, but meeting all the other competitors and sharing their stories," he says.

"I think the crazy thing was how soon after my transplant I’d made it that far. It had been one year and two months since my transplant, and I was cycling in an international event."

Pictured: James Sheppard (supplied).

James believes receiving a heart transplant has helped him appreciate the small things in life.

"If I could bottle up and sell the ‘reset of life’ perspective, then I would make a lot of money," he laughs.

"I had two cardiac arrests and I could have gone either times, but for whatever reason I didn’t. Going through that, you learn what’s important in life, and you learn that what isn’t important isn’t worth sweating about."

As James points out, his cycling achievements wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t received a heart transplant. He wants to encourage people to register to become organ and tissue donors to give others a second chance at life.

"What an incredible legacy to leave behind," he says.

"It’s given me the opportunity to be able to ride a bike, meet the girl of my dreams, and plan a life that I may not have had a few years ago."

C’mon, mate! Register to be an organ donor today. What are you waiting for? It won’t kill you. But when something else does, your bits and pieces could help save the lives of 10 or more other Aussies. How cool is that? Register now.

Header Image: Supplied