JUST six months ago, Andy and Joanne Lawrence were told to get ready to say goodbye to their son Tom.

Doctors said there was a strong chance the 14-year-old would be dead within 72 hours.

In August, the football-mad teenager from Bernwood Road, Barton, Oxford, was struck down by a virus that caused his heart to swell.

By Christmas, Tom had become desperately ill as doctors battled to save his life.

Mrs Lawrence, 38, was told to prepare for the worst.

She said: “Hearing those words is just an awful shock.

“It was a nightmare.”

The Cheney School pupil had been hit with a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart muscle walls to become thin and floppy.

It became difficult for blood to be pumped around the body.

In Tom’s case, his heart was becoming too big for his body.

By early December, despite the best efforts of experts at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, the teenager was referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

He was put on a machine called a Berlin Heart later that month, while medics tried to find a donor for a transplant.

And, by the beginning of January, an emergency operation was carried out and Tom was given a new heart. He was back at home. by January 24.

Mrs Lawrence said: “You go from absolute relief, to start thinking about the person who actually passed away.

“I know it goes through Tom’s mind occasionally and it took a while to get this head around the fact that someone had to die to give him life.

“It is a blessing for us but you feel so sorry for the parents who lost their child.

“There have been relatively few problems. We are just so completely grateful to the donor and their family. They have given us our son back.”

Tom is now working his way back to fitness and is determined to give something back.

He is now doing a 15-mile walk in aid of the London hospital.

On Saturday, June 25, he will be joined by about 40 family and friends from Barton as he walks from Lewknor to Headington Girls School, which has donated the use of the hall, to raise as much as he can for the team which saved his life.

He said: “I want to do it because of Great Ormond Street saving my life.

“I may not be able to do all the walk but I will do my very best as I really would like to do it all to show how thankful I am.”

Donate at justgiving.com/ joanne-lawrence