A fund in memory of the longest-living heart and lung transplant patient has been launched in the garden where she loved to walk.

Transplant patients from throughout the district gathered on Sunday in the garden of Jo Hatton's home in Oakworth Road, Keighley. They watched her widower Phil plant a miniature willow tree to launch the Jo Hatton Memorial Fund.

Jo, who had been born with a heart defect, died this summer aged 45. She had survived 13 years with a transplanted heart and lung.

The fund is to pay for a worker to support transplant patients, those awaiting treatment and their relatives. It will be linked to the Transplant Support Network (TSN), set up by Phil and Jo more than three years ago.

Phil, 54, says: "The TSN is here to stay but it can't continue without funds. It was always our wish that the network would have some full- or part-time staff. A national organisation such as ours cannot exist on volunteers alone.

"We now have over 80 supporters countrywide and we have supported in excess of 200 families. We are represented on committees at Depart-ment of Health level and hopefully we will go on as long as is needed."

Among the 50 or so guests at the launch were a number of transplant patients and donors, such as Bradford business manager Ali Asghar, who donated a kidney to his brother.

Also there was lung-transplant patient Adrian Asquith, 49, of Shipley, who had his operation in August 1997 after suffering emphysema caused by smoking. "I met Jo two years ago," he says. "She came round to see me and was a great inspiration. As soon as I heard about the fund I wanted to get involved and I am arranging a fundraising event in Halifax in January.

"People facing a transplant and afterwards need to talk to people in the same position. It gives you so much confidence and I want to put some of that help back."

Anyone wishing to donate to the fund or make contact can do so by writing to the Transplant Support Network, KVS, 135 Skipton Road, Keighley, BD21 3AV or telephoning 01535 210101.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.