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A father and daughter had heart transplants from the same surgeons in the same hospital just two weeks apart after years on the waiting list together.

Doting dad Kevin Silcox, 60, was visiting daughter Jenna Williams, 39, after her swap op when doctors told him: “We have a new heart for you too.”

Both have the same rare genetic heart condition – but only found out when mother-of-two Jenna was taken ill at the age of 20.

Brave Jenna has been kept alive by a hospital machine for almost 18 months as she desperately waited for a life-saving heart transplant.

A donor heart became available in June – and then another one for her dad as he visited her in hospital 17 days later.

Teaching assistant Jenna said: “I want to thank my donor for allowing me to continue being a mother. I will cherish this gift and my donor will forever be our hero.

“Now my dad has been given to same chance of life. We are so very grateful.”

Her mother Julie Silcox, 70, said: “I’ve won the lottery twice – I am so thankful to the donors from the bottom of my heart. You can’t put a price on the gift of life.”

Jenna, from Bargoed, first fell ill in 2005 at the age of 20 when she was diagnosed with the genetic heart condition cardiomyopathy.

Doctors broke the news her condition was chronic and she wouldn’t make it a year without a new heart. One became available just a month after she was added to the list.

The whole family was screened because of their genetic link and medics revealed dad Kevin also had the same condition.

But his was milder, treated with medication and a pacemaker until 2018 when he was added to the non-urgent transplant list.

Jenna’s transplant heart began to fail and doctors told her she would need another donor to be found.

She had her second transplant on June 16. Retired Kevin travelled more than 100 miles to visit her in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham when he was told his transplant op would be on July 3.

Kirsty Silcox, 36, Jenna’s sister and Kevin’s daughter, said: “Two and a half weeks between them – that absolutely blew our mind.

“All I can say is the staff up there have been absolutely outstanding.

“I can’t thank them enough for showing the dignity, compassion, respect to the patients and to the families. They have been absolutely outstanding.

“Two little girls have still got their mother and our mum has still got her daughter. I think a lot of people assume it will never happen to them – organ donation is such a gift.”

She praised surgeons Dr Colin Chue and Dr Hoong Sern Lim for both operations, saying: “Thank you just doesn’t seem enough.”

“Dr Chue said to us just after my dad was there with me visiting Jenna: ‘One down, one to go,’ but never ever did we believe that was going to happen.

“My dad actually said: ‘No, no your job is done.'”

Kirsty said: “He was on his way up on July 3 and the transplant team called him and said: ‘Where are you Kev?’

“He said: ‘On the way up to see Jenna’ and they said: ‘We have another reason for you to come up – we have a potential heart’.”

“Everything we were prepared for Jenna to go through dad ended up experiencing,” said Kirsty.

Both are now recovering after leaving critical care.

Jenna’s daughters Angel, 12, and Iliana, 10, have both been able to visit their mum as well as Jenna’s wife Nicola Williams.

Kirsty said: “They have really shown strength and resilience. It is amazing. If we could block it all from them we would want to, but it is reality for our life at the moment and it is going to be reality for a long time, of hospitals and medical care.

“Jenna knows this is kind of her last chance. And the same with my dad – the first thing he said was: ‘I have such a different outlook on life’.

Call 0300 123 23 23 or visit organdonation.nhs.uk to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.