Kia ora, my name is Jack and I’m a physical training instructor in the New Zealand Navy.

I love my job – I have a massive passion for fitness and to be able to share that passion with our up and coming sailors and current sailors is an amazing experience because you’ve got so many different people from so many different backgrounds coming together to serve our nation.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, which is an enlarged heart and heart failure. The news was quite shocking, but then again because I was so sick it was relieving that I found out the problem.

The solution was to get a heart transplant. That was a hard thing to process for me; that someone needs to pass away in order for me to carry on living.

The state my body was in I was going to need blood products to keep me alive and that’s the reason why I am here today.

There are a lot of people I don’t know who have given me this chance to live and I couldn’t be more thankful enough for that. Blood donors, your decision impacts more than just one person. I know personally I’m super grateful, my family is super grateful that I’m still here, my friends – it’s not just the person whose life you’re saving. It’s bigger than that.

I’m now able to return to my job of training our future sailors, to give back to them like someone has given back to me. It’s made a full circle of generosity where generosity has passed from person to person and we’re all just in this world helping others along the way. That’s a massive win in anybody’s book.