In cricket terms it would be 20 not out. In health terms Aucklander Ron Gray, a cricket fanatic, today celebrates the 20 years that mark him as the longest living heart transplant recipient in New Zealand.
And it all started with a rogue cricket ball that smashed into his chest
during a social game at Whenuapai in 1982.
"I'll always remember the day. March 27, it was my mother's birthday."
His mother, Thelma, died in Christchurch just over a week ago, aged 91.
"She was my best supporter, would have done anything to help."
The cricket injury put Mr Gray into Green Lane Hospital, where he suffered a major heart attack.
Had he not been sent straight to the hospital from the cricket pitch he reckons he would have died aged 49, leaving behind his two sons then aged 17 and 20.
"I remember coming to with a sore chest. I did not know where I was. I only vaguely remember being hit by the ball."
The then-Browns Bay bank manager recovered from the heart attack, but the doctors gave him only six months to live.
"They thought I'd be the best candidate for a heart transplant. I was active, a sportsman and a positive person."
The medical team gave Mr Gray a choice of going to London or Sydney for the operation.
"I chose St Vincent's [in Sydney] because it was close ... and I trust the Aussies."
A public appeal was launched to pay for the operation and $50,000 was raised in a few months.
The money could have been a worry, "but they told me to go and shut my eyes and forget about it."
Mr Gray said he never feared the operation.
"I was very calm. It's my nature. I am not a panicker ... That definitely helped with my recovery."
He flew to Sydney in December 1984 and the transplant was done on January 18, 1985, by the late Dr Victor Chang.
"All I knew was they told me one day all was going well and they were lining me up for the operation that night. I rang my mother in Christchurch and she broke down."
After the operation, where Mr Gray received the heart of a 19-year-old motorbike accident victim, he had no idea what to expect.
"If I had five years I had done well ... It has never bothered me. I accepted what happened and just kept on doing things."
Over the years Mr Gray did public speaking to raise money towards developing heart transplant procedures in New Zealand and to provide facilities for the now-closed "Hearty Towers", the accommodation provided for recovering patients and their support people, usually family members, at Green Lane Hospital.
He still gets problems, mainly associated with the medicine he has to take, and in 1983 had open-heart surgery for an aneurism.
"I had a stroke and when I came out of it I was paralysed on the left side ... It still affects me."
But at the age of 69, a proud grandparent of three boys and three girls, he is not complaining.
It's not in his nature. Besides which, tonight his friends and family are getting together to celebrate his extra innings.
"I just keep going on, doing what I'm best at."
In cricket terms it would be 20 not out. In health terms Aucklander Ron Gray, a cricket fanatic, today celebrates the 20 years that mark him as the longest living heart transplant recipient in New Zealand.
And it all started with a rogue cricket ball that smashed into his chest
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