August 28, 2008 Heart transplant recipient rides for life Play video

(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Boston, Mass.) - Richard Gates is pedaling for his life. In 2000, the 57-year-old Boston man found out he had cardiomyopathy, the same incurable heart condition that took his mother's life.

"I immediately found myself on my hands and knees on the floor, trying to gasp for my breath."

Weak and weighing just 114 pounds, Gates was hospitalized and put on the transplant waiting list. He needed a new heart. In 2004, a woman died and her family donated her organs -- Gates felt reborn.

"There was a sense of what do I need to do to get myself down the road."

In these past weeks, that road has taken the musician, his wife and their bikes from Ohio to Boston. His finish line, this bright summer morning, is Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he got his heart, but rest stops along the way were medical centers -- Gates talking to patients waiting for transplants, showing them what's possible.

Doctors at the Brigham say the biggest issue in the field of organ transplantation right now is the lack of available donors. Over the years, fewer people have been donating their organs, but more people need them.

Jackie Crothers is on the list. The 55-year-old Swampscott mother of two has been waiting for a heart for four years.

"Even if they told me all I would have is four years, I'd jump at it because that's more time with my kids and more time with my husband."

Crothers says it's a strange place to be, waiting

"It's like having one foot in the real world and one foot in this really weird, dark world, and, uh, it's invisible, people don't know."

Crothers is grateful for the visit from Gates. The two chatted quietly about nerve-wracking issues -- the wait, the drugs, organ rejection and what it means to have someone else's heart beating in your chest.

"I felt so fortunate that I had gotten a call and there was a heart for me," said Gates.

A heart full of gratitude for a woman he knows only as Meredith, a woman who gave him her heart and a new mission in life.

"If one person decides to be an organ donor as a result of my ride, that's a step in the right direction," said Gates.