Teenager Pete Wallis has wowed doctors with this remarkable recovery after being given a new heart.
He has transformed from being wheelchair-bound and so weak he could barely eat to a happy, healthy 15-year-old who has even taken up bodybuilding.
Seven months after his gruelling five-hour transplant operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Pete trains five times a week at his local gym and has just returned from a week-long activity holiday where he was able to take part in raft making, kayaking and even abseiling.
He is looking forward to returning to St Edmund's Catholic School in Arundel Street, Portsmouth, in September and wants to train to become an actor.
Pete, from Amberley Road, Gosport, said: 'I love bodybuilding. I never thought I would be able to do anything like it. I feel proud of myself. I have fought through this, beaten death and I can do what I want. Now I can go out with my friends to the cinema and go running. It's like having my life back.
'I've got a lot more freedom. I feel more energetic. It's surprising what I've been able to do.'
Born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallots, Pete had survived two major operations and a heart attack by the age of 13.
He took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2006 and in November last year was told a transplant was his only hope. The teenager underwent the operation on January 10 and became one of 29 children in the UK who received a new heart in the last year.
Pete will have to take cholesterol and anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life but his latest check-up has revealed he is making a good recovery.
Mum Kes Suffield, 38, said: 'He's getting on brilliantly. It's a complete turnaround. He's like a different person. He just oozes strength.
'We thought at one point he wasn't going to make it, let alone be doing the things he's doing now.'