Mother meets man her son’s donor heart saved

A mother whose son died six years ago saw her wish come true when she met the man his donor heart saved in a "completely coincidental" moment.

Freda Carter told The Daily Telegraph that she came across her son’s anonymous transplant recipient at a memorial service and became “hysterical” when she realised who he was.

Ms Carter and her husband John lost their son, also John, to a brain tumour when he was 33, and gave permission for some of his organs, including his heart, to be donated.

All they were given was the recipient’s first name, Scott, and when Ms Carter saw a Scott listed to sing at a memorial service for organ donors last November, she said her maternal instinct kicked in and she knew it was him. “When I sat down and turned the page on the order of service and saw his name there, a strange feeling came over me,” the 66-year-old from Sunderland told the newspaper.

“I knew he was the recipient of John’s heart.”

I couldn’t breathe and I started making a massive scene. I think it must have been maternal instinct.”

Daughter Julie Carter, 43, said it had always been her mother’s wish before she died to meet the boy who had received the heart.

She told the Sunderland Echo: “One of my mam’s dying wishes was to touch John’s heart and she put her hands on the lad’s chest to feel it.”

Scott Rutherford, 20, now works as an actor and said: “I am unbelievably thankful to John and his family. The difference in my health is amazing. My heartbeat is so strong that it keeps me awake at night.”