A heart transplant patient has scaled new heights less than a year after receiving a heart in a life-saving operation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).

Rhys Llewellyn has succeeded in climbing Mount Snowdon in Wales just nine months after receiving his new heart.

And as if to confirm just how well patients can recover from heart transplant operations, he was accompanied on the Snowdon climb by fellow patient Leah Biggs who underwent her heart transplant operation at QEHB two years ago.

Rhys had lived with cardiomyopathy since infancy. However, in March last year, Rhy’s heart condition deteriorated considerably, and he was referred to QEHB for urgent consideration of heart transplantation.

Rhys said: “In the months before my operation I could hardly walk a few steps, let alone climb a mountain. I had flu-like symptoms and I felt very short of breath. These symptoms didn't get better and in June I was diagnosed with end stage heart failure.”

With a further deterioration in his heart condition, Rhys underwent heart transplantation here on 29 October 2011, having been on the national heart transplant waiting list for seven months.

Rhys has since made "a great recovery" and has returned to work as a plumbing supplier in Cardiff.

Rhys added: “Heart disease can affect anyone, so I would like to encourage people to think about joining the organ donation register so that more lives like mine can be saved.”

Mr Jorge Mascaro, a consultant cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at QEHB, said: "On behalf of the Heart and Lung Transplant Unit at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, I congratulate Rhys and Leah on their amazing achievement. We are very proud of them both.

"Transplants save lives, none of which would be possible without the courage of strangers considering organ donation at a time of tragedy."