50 years on, pioneer heart baby weds on the luckiest day

John Gold was born with a hole in the heart and given only five years to live by doctors who at that time were unable to repair the condition.

But when he was 16 months old, in 1956, his plight was highlighted in the Daily Mail's old sister paper the Daily Sketch and readers raised enough money to pay for him to have the pioneering operation in the U.S.

Now Mr Gold is 52 and a successful computer consultant. And he has another pressing affair of the heart to attend to - his forthcoming wedding.

"It wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for your readers' help in raising money so that I could have my operation all those years ago," he said as he revealed that he and his bride-to-be Nicola Hebditch, 48, are among the many couples who have picked July 7 this year - or 7/7/07 - as the date to wed.

"They say seven is a lucky number, so it's fitting. I'm marrying Nicola and I'm lucky to be alive."

Shortly after Mr Gold was born in 1955, he became sick, his lips went blue and his face grey.

His mother Patricia, from Northwood Hills, West London, asked his godfather Griff Ross, a medical doctor and U.S. Air Force Captain, to look at him. Dr Ross realised there was a cardiac defect after listening to the baby's chest and hearing his heart "pounding like a train whooshing through a tunnel".

In hospital, a ventricular septal defect was confirmed. It is a common form of congenital heart disease in which holes in the ventricle walls allow oxygenated blood to flow back to the lungs instead of being pumped round the body, leaving sufferers at risk of bronchial pneumonia.

Nowadays operations to correct the condition are frequently performed, but back then it was considered to be incurable and fatal.

However Dr Ross returned to the U.S. in 1956 and began work at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he discovered that hole-in-the-heart surgery was being carried out.

He told Mrs Gold and her husband William that he would arrange for John to have the operation if they could raise the money to take their son there.

The Daily Sketch - which went on to merge with the Daily Mail in 1971 - highlighted John's case in an article headlined: "He needs £1,000 to keep him alive."

Readers, including children donating their pocket money, instantly responded to the appeal and £1,200 was raised - equivalent to £20,000 today.

Because John was too ill to fly he went to America by cruise liner, which took ten days. The four-hour operation proved a success.

"It feels like my whole life has been a miracle," said Mr Gold, who lives with his fiancee in Wokingham, Berkshire.

"I still attend the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford so they can keep an eye on things but so far - touch wood - everything is OK.

"I am aware of my limitations and stick to them. I can't do sports, for instance, but when I look around at people and friends of my age I think myself very lucky.

"I've always had a strong constitution and I think that's what has helped me through the years."

It will be the second marriage for both Mr Gold and Miss Hebditch, who met on an Internet dating site in 2004. Both are divorced and each has two children from their previous marriages.

Miss Hebditch, a florist, said: "A few weeks after we first met in person John showed me all the newspaper and magazine cuttings about him and said, 'Did you know that I was famous when I was a baby?'

"Of course, I had no idea and we both laughed. It's amazing to think the journey he has been on and I'm so looking forward to marrying him. It will be a very special day."