HUNDREDS of patients who have undergone life-saving heart and lung transplants in the North-East will help celebrate a remarkable birthday today.

It is 21 years since a team of surgeons at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle carried out their first heart transplant.

The very first patient to receive a new heart on Tyneside - Pauline Duffy from Gateshead - is one of more than 1,200 people to have been given another chance to live.

That operation in May 1985 put the North-East on the map as only the third heart transplant centre in the UK.

Since the historic operation a total of 1,277 patients have had transplants at the Freeman. The figure includes 733 heart transplants and 544 lung transplants.

To mark the anniversary, children who have undergone transplant surgery will gather in Newcastle this afternoon and release hundreds of balloons.

In the evening, it will be the adults' turn to celebrate, at a grand dinner-dance at the Centre for Life.

While today is a time for celebration, the organisers said the plight of the estimated 130 patients - including ten children - waiting for hearts or lungs at the Freeman would be in their minds.

Since January 11, patients, including one child, have died on the waiting list.

Because of the shortage of donors many patients will die without getting the chance of a new life.

Lynne Holt, transplant coordinator at the Freeman, works with patients who are waiting desperately for new organs.

"Once patients go on the waiting list they either die or get a transplant. We need more people to talk about organ donations with their families. There are just not enough organs to go around," she said.

Tony Armstrong, 72, from West Moor, Newcastle, chairs the 700-strong Freeman Heart and Lung Transplant Association.

A former accountant, he was only the 30th patient to receive a new heart in 1987, after his heart was damaged by a suspected virus.

"I can't speak too highly of the team at the Freeman. It is fantastic what they do for people," said Mr Armstrong, who will attend the dinner with his wife, Barbara.

To register on the NHS Organ Donor Register ring 0845 60 60 400 or go to www.uktransplant.org.uk