He got a new heart in November 2024. Last Friday he won the Transplant Football World Cup

On Friday 18 September, in Frankfurt, Martyn Jackson scored in a final England won 5-1 against Spain. Less than two years earlier, he was on the highest-priority waiting list for a donor heart. 1

Jackson was playing for Ramsbottom United in the North West Counties Premier Division in October 2024. His side beat Cheadle Town 2-1, and he walked off the pitch. Two nights later he woke up feeling unwell. 1

Doctors told him he had myocarditis: inflammation of the heart, usually caused by an infection. Within weeks his case was severe enough that he needed a mechanical pump to keep his heart going, and he was placed on the super urgent transplant list, the highest of the three tiers of people waiting for a heart. About four or five people in the UK are on that list at any one time. 1

A donor heart came. Jackson had the transplant on 28 November 2024 at Wythenshawe Hospital in Greater Manchester. 1

"Obviously, when you've had a transplant, you don't think you're ever going to play again," he told BBC Sport. "I'll be forever grateful to my donor and the family for what they've given me. They've given me the gift of life and the opportunity to live my life to the fullest." 1

Dr Paul Callan, a consultant cardiologist at Wythenshawe, worked with Jackson through his diagnosis and recovery. He told BBC Sport that the average wait on the urgent transplant list has stretched from seven days to fourteen, and that around 10% of the patients put on it become too ill and have to come off again. 1

Every player at the Transplant Football World Cup has received a donor organ. Fifteen national teams played in Frankfurt this September: seven-a-side, two 20-minute halves. 2 England were already European champions, having beaten Italy in the final in Radley in 2025. 3

Jackson spent his youth in Manchester United's academy, then had spells at Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and Burnley, and played thirteen years in non-league football. During his recovery his wife Lucy found the England transplant team on social media, and he joined the squad in January 2026. 1

His donor heart means he manages his workload more carefully than team-mates who have had kidney transplants, the most common transplant in the UK. He comes on for bursts of about ten minutes at a time. 1

Daley Cross manages the side alongside his job as a youth worker. Of Lucy's approach, Cross said: "She was just trying to do her best for him and trying to find a way to motivate him. His wife did drop in the conversation that he used to play at Manchester United as a schoolboy. So that got our ears twitched instantly." 1 Cross wants to take the trophy around the country so the players can share it with the medical teams who saved their lives and donors can be honoured. 3

Striker Kevin Kyley, who had a kidney transplant at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford in 2009, told BBC News the tournament was about more than the football. "In our team we have got some young players who are just starting their transplant journey and some older ones like myself who have had their transplant a long time," he said. 3

Jackson's transplant took him off a list that is getting longer. NHS Blood and Transplant says more than 8,700 people in the UK are waiting for a transplant, a record, and that deceased donation rates are running 9% below this time last year. 4

On 21 September, the first day of Organ Donation Week, the NHS announced its first-ever urgent response plan for organ donation. 4 The figures behind it: family consent rates have fallen from 67% in 2020/21 to 57% last year, and families agree to donation 90% of the time when they know what their relative wanted, against about 50% when they do not. 4

Between April 2021 and March 2026, more than 700 potential donations did not go ahead because families did not know their loved one's decision. At an average of three organs per deceased donor, NHS Blood and Transplant puts that at around 2,127 missed transplants. Nine people die every week waiting. 4

The number that stays with me is the fourteen days Dr Callan now quotes for an urgent heart. It used to be seven. 1

Jackson has not met the family of his donor. He has said he is considering reaching out around the two-year anniversary of his surgery. 1

Recording a decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register takes about two minutes, and can be done online, by calling 0300 123 23, or in the NHS App. NHS Blood and Transplant says one donor can save up to nine lives. 5