Hand Transplant.

Mr Cahill, a former rugby league player, was also left wheelchair-bound at one point when the gout affected his spine. He said: ‘Anything I have now is better than what I had before this operation. I’m hoping to eventually get back to work. Before the operation Mark suffered from gout and his hand was left paralyzed after becoming infected. ‘I discussed it with my family and came back to Professor Kay in about October and told him I wanted to go ahead with it – so when I got the call on Boxing Day to say there was a donor I was gobsmacked. ‘I really expected quite a wait, and it was a bit of a gulp moment. Sylvia and I were meant to be going on holiday to Goa this week, but this is obviously a much better turn-out.’ When doctors learned that a hand suitable for transplant had become available they called in Mr Cahill for tests to check how his tissue matched with that of the donor. He said: ‘I was called into the hospital along with another recipient, and they tested us to see which was the stronger match – and I was.’Within hours the doctors began the grueling surgery, which saw his hand removed and the replacement attached in the same operation.

New lease of life Mark Cahill, pictured before the operation with wife Sylvia and grandson Thomas in 2011, hopes that the days of a useless hand are over and that he can return to employment. Mr Cahill had been unable to use his right hand for five years after it became infected owing to severe gout, an acute form of arthritis caused by a build-up of uric acid in the blood. He and his second wife Sylvia, who celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary last year, were forced to give up their beloved village pub, the Shears Inn in Greetland, near Halifax, because of his disability. Mr Cahill said he was shocked when he was offered the ground-breaking surgery less than three months after he was added to the transplant register. ‘After a lot of tests, Professor Kay (the plastic surgeon who performed the operation) told me I could be a candidate for a hand transplant, and asked me to give it some thought. – I’m already moving my fingers and the doctors say I’m making quicker progress than they expected.’ Photographs posted by Mr Cahill on his Facebook page show his swollen hand before the operation and a painful infection on one of his fingers.

Brand new hand as these eight-hour surgery involved attaching his arm to the new hand using titanium plates. Mr Cahill added: ‘It didn’t feel real until I woke up after the operation. It felt like a dream, even when I was going into theater ’ He added: ‘It’s how I expected it to look, because I’ve done a lot of research about hand transplants. But you can do all the research you want and you don’t know how you’re going to feel – I’ve had a lot of help from psychologists because the biggest thing is afterwards, whether I would accept it as mine.’ Mr Cahill, who has one daughter, Danielle, is full of gratitude to the family of the donor. His wife added: ‘It was a wonderful thing to do. It must have been really difficult for them but I’ll always be grateful for the choice they made.’ Professor Norman Williams, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: 'This is yet another example of life-changing surgical advancements that are now possible.  'New surgical techniques together with a greater understanding of organ rejection are making an ever wider range of transplants possible. This presents opportunities for treating conditions and improving quality of life in ways that simply were not possible in the past.  'As with all procedures the surgeon said improve the quality of life rather than save it due to risk, there is an ethical balance to be struck – especially as the lifelong anti-rejection medication that the patient would need to take carries its own risks. 'Care always needs to be taken in choosing suitable patients who understand the risks and benefits. This selection should be by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors which includes a psychologist or psychiatrist as a core-member of the selection team.'