All of us have to make the best use of the cards we are dealt when we're born.
But when life deals you a rough hand you can either make the best of it, or demand a better deal.
Luckily for Malcolm Watt, his parents Stan and Lorraine chose the latter option.
“I was a sickly child. My parents took me to the local doctor and he couldn't find too much wrong. But I just wasn't thriving,” he said.
At three years old he was diagnosed with a hole in the heart.
It was 1950, and the prognosis was not good.
“My parents were told that I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 21, and that life expectancy wasn't much beyond that,” he said.
Three years later, across the other side of the world, an American heart surgeon performed the first ever successful open-heart procedure. Australia had to wait until 1957 for its first open heart operation at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
As a young boy with a defective heart, Malcolm couldn't run around with his mates without becoming breathless and tired.
“When I was six, they decided to take my tonsils out, but that didn't improve anything,” he said with a smile.
However, Malcolm's hand of cards wasn't completely stacked against him.
His father Stan was a tireless man who worked three jobs while his mother Lorraine was an energetic and determined nurse.
Between them, they secured visits to a Spring St specialist, and a heart surgeon — George Westlake — for their ailing son.
On Friday, August 26, 1960 Malcolm lay on the operating table at the Royal Children's Hospital waiting for an ace card, and the chance to live a full life.
Malcolm said as a country kid he was lucky to be in the queue for a heart operation.
“At that time, country kids who had heart issues were put on standby while they operated on the Melbourne kids. I know Dad mentioned to the surgeon this was crazy. Country kids were hours away, and if you got a cold or something they put back the operation,” he said.
Malcolm said his operation lasted between six and eight hours while he was attached to a heart and lung machine. He then spent 24 hours in a two-bedroom intensive care room with an open window.
“I remember it was a rainy day in Melbourne. I had a temperature and I had a fan on me and wore a little lap-lap with all the tubes coming out of me,” he said.
After three weeks recovering in hospital, Malcolm spent a fortnight at his aunt's farm at Manangatang before finally being able to run around with his mates and become a busy Mooroopna schoolboy.
He joined the Cubs, then Scouts, then played sports — badminton, baseball and table tennis before settling on basketball as his favourite.
He went on to work at insurance company Colonial in Melbourne, joined the company basketball team, and became an umpire.
Later, he returned to Mooroopna as a life insurance salesman, then worked at the water board before taking up a position with the Victorian Young Farmers. Malcolm ended his working life at youth support agency The Bridge.
Along the way, Malcolm married Pam and they adopted a son, Jae.
“It's been a fortunate life, and a very fulfilling one. I was always encouraged to participate, join in and contribute,” he said.
Apart from his sporting activities, Malcolm was a founding member of the Shepparton Rotaract Club for young people, and he continues his long membership of Shepparton Central Rotary Club.
Today he's left with a visible reminder of the new lease on life given to him all those years ago — a horizontal scar across his chest from armpit to armpit.
His advice to anyone facing heart problems today?
“Have a go, join in — and hang in there,” he said.
