IT was an anniversary party with a difference as a Bexley man chalked up 20 years living with someone else’s heart.

By the age of 41,Tony Jeavons of Mayplace Road East, Bexleyheath, a father of two young children, had been forced to give up his job with the ambulance service because of his health.

The year before he had suffered a serious heart attack, his heart was diseased and he also had an inoperable aneurism.

He was put on the list for a transplant at the world famous Harefield Hospital, Uxbridge, under the team of renowned surgeon Magdi Yacoub.

In 1990, having missed two previous transplant opportunities, he was given the heart of a young woman, killed in a road traffic accident in Northern Ireland, and it is still going strong.

Mr Jeavons, now 64, still has to take drugs every day to prevent rejection and have regular check ups and says: “I obviously got the right heart for me.”

His wife Carol organised the surprise celebration the mark the 20th anniversary of his transplant.

The longest surviving transplant patient died in 2009, 30 years after his operation.