Prestatyn man celebrates first anniversary of heart transplant

Brooklyn Peakman, 21, underwent a successful transplant on St Patrick’s Day last year, and marked its first anniversary with a fancy dress party with his family on Friday evening.

It followed two failed operations after the first was abandoned midway through and the second was cancelled because the donor heart had deteriorated.

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Brooklyn in hospital (Image: Kelly Peakman)

Brooklyn, who was born with heart defects, had also proposed to his girlfriend, Ellie, shortly before the first failed transplant, in February 2022, during which he also suffered a stroke.

Thankfully, it proved third time lucky for him, after an operation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, proved a success, in what was the hospital’s 1,001st heart transplant.

And while the last year has been anything but easy for Brooklyn and his family, his mother, Kelly, considers herself lucky just that he is still alive.

She said: “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. Brooklyn’s been back and forth to hospital for many things; he lost sight in his left eye through a stroke, and the use of his left hand, so he’s having to adapt in a lot of ways.

“He’s in hospital at least once a week, for different things. He has a few hospitals (he visits), but luckily, he’s had no treatment rejections (from his new heart) in the last 12 months, which is absolutely fantastic.

“It’s been a struggle, but we all feel very lucky that he’s still here. We just work around it all, and pull together as a family (to help Brooklyn).”

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Brooklyn’s transplant took 15 hours, primarily due to difficulty in removing a heart switch he had been fitted with as a child.

He was then put into an induced coma for a day, though it was another day before he could speak.

Brooklyn’s family are now trying to save up enough money to treat him to a holiday, to enable him to enjoy some respite after the ordeal of the last 12 months and more.

Kelly said that, due to the stroke he suffered, he cannot currently work, but has enjoyed taking up snooker and pool, and spends a lot of time with his family and fiancée.

The family do not know the identity of the man who donated their heart to Brooklyn, but hope to meet him one day to express their gratitude to him in person.

She added: “We don’t know who donated their heart to Brooklyn. All we know is that it was a 42-year-old man.

“We’re very grateful to him, and hopefully, one day, we’ll find it out who he was, so we can thank him.

“We had a big fancy dress party at Archie’s in Prestatyn (on March 17) – it was a surprise, but the cat was let out of the bag!

“We keep calling him ‘Paddy’ because it (transplant) was on St Patrick’s Day and because he’s been so lucky, so he dressed up as a leprechaun!

“I’m absolutely amazed at him, and so proud to be his mother. It’s not just the heart transplant, it’s mentally – losing the ability to work has been one of the main things.”