The charity was formed in 1986 when the NHS was unwilling to pay for heart transplants in the North West region.

Now transplants are funded by the NHS, the charity seeks to support and enhance the transplant unit by providing funds to accelerate the adoption of new procedures and funding of research which advances the technology surrounding transplantation.

The Transplant Centre was opened in 1993, this dedicated centre is one of only five transplant units in the UK.  The unit comprises an outpatient assessment centre, operating theatre and an intensive care ward.  The Jim Quick Ward and the Research Centre were later added to make Wythenshawe one of the first fully integrated Heart and Lung Transplant Centres in Europe.

Patients are referred to the unit from all over the country but the majority are from the North West region.  Patients always have the choice of where they would like to go for treatment.  The unit has treated people from Cumbria in the North to Stafford in the South, South Yorkshire in the East and as far as Anglesey and other part of Mid and North Wales.

The Jim Quick Ward















Opened in 2002 and named after Jim uick, who was the 8th patient to undergo a heart transplant at Wythenshawe.  Jim was also Chairman for the Charity from 1996 until his death in 2000.

The addition of this dedicated transplant ward ensures that transplant patients stay in the dedicated unit from initial appraisal through the operation and then recovery.

The Research Centre:


The dedicated transplant research laboratory focuses its efforts delineating the role of the immune system in different complications following transplantation.  The research group has been very successful, regularly reporting new findings to the scientific community and changing clinical practice.  This has given the unit an international reputation for high impact science, which would not have been possible without New Start.

The Bungalows

After transplantation patients sometimes feel a little nervous about leaving the hospital environment completely.  In order to meet this need the Charity built four bungalows in 1990 in the grounds of the hospital so that patients can move into the bungalows to aid recovery whilst their confidence returns.  Although separate from the unit they are close enough to give comfort that help is close by should it be needed.

The Bedsits - We don't forget that some patients (and their families) trvel long distances to come to the unit.  There are six bedsits available for overnight stays thereby saving excessive travelling.

they also provide a private facility for families of transplantees to be close at hand prior to and during the operation.

The CMR Scanner -  During 2005/07 New Start raised £1million to fund the purchase of a Cardiace Magnetic Resonance Scanner which is located in the new Cardiac Centre opened in Wythenshawe in 2008.  This latest technology enables the cardiologists to get a much clearer picture of the operation of the heart without any radiation or invasive surgery.

and there is more ..........

Whilst the NHS provides substantial funds for the transplant unit there is always a demand for funding to support pioneering treatments and research which the NHS is unable to fund.

Two recent projects which the charity has supported involved providing initial funding of £110,000 for temporary assist devices (Ventricular Assisted Devices) and £90,000 towards a new technique, the Ex-Vivo Lung Assessment Technique.

VAD's which are effectively artificial hearts, are used to provide temporary short term mechanical heart support to very sick patients both pre and post transplant and this support has saved lives.

The Ex-Vivo technique allows surgeons to evaluate and recondition borderline donor lungs outside the body, thus enabling them to use such lungs for a transplant that otherwise would have been rejected.