Updated Tuesday, March 27, 2007

My name is Andrew Downs

I was born with two holes in my heart.

I had my first operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in 1967.

In the early seventies I had two more operations at Hammersmith Hospital in London to finish correcting the holes in my heart.

I am fit and can do anything including cycling and church bellringing

I trained at Braintree college for one year as a chef and have worked in Colchester and Norwich before moving to Cambridgeshire and started to work at Papworth Hospital about 13 years ago and know the second chef.

My main interest is church bellringing and ring at Meldreth and many other towers.

I am a member of the Zipper Society of Bellringers.

The idea of the Zipper Society is to show that you can do anything after heart surgery

Another interest I have is a little blue budgie called Percy.

On the death of Percy we bought a new green budgie called Sammy