A GRATEFUL Marlow pensioner believes his 30-year-old pacemaker could well be the oldest in Europe.

Mike Broberg, 73, of George Close, was given the life-saving instrument back in 1981 after collapsing in London.

Despite checks every three months and an expected battery life of five years, the dependable device is still going strong.

And dumfounded heart specialists admit they don’t know if anyone else in the UK boasts a longer-serving pacemaker.

Mr Broberg – who plans to celebrate the equipment’s third uninterrupted decade at Harefield Hospital in Uxbridge – said: “It’s a unique situation and probably the longest in Europe – it changed my life.

“I wouldn’t be here today with it - it was a life and death situation for me and it improved my life no end.”

The former sales manager paid tribute to staff at the heart and lung specialist centre for their support and treatment which saved his life.

“The hospital has been absolutely brilliant and so have been the staff,” he admitted.

“At that time I was a very keen squash player but I didn’t win a match for months – but [after the pacemaker was fitted] I started winning again!”

Nowadays, the average battery life of a modern ticker is till just seven years and the principal chief cardiac physiologist at Harefields, Julia Rochelle, revealed: “It’s remarkable, I don’t know of any other patients who have had one for so long.

“I have been here for as long as he was been coming here and it’s great that it hasn’t been changed.”

And a former director of Dutch firm Vitatron which used to supply pacemakers to UK hospitals also hailed the pacemaker’s unprecedented longevity.

Roger Garstang, 72, said: “It’s quite an extraordinary amount of time for a pacemaker.

“I have been involved with them for a large part of my life and I have never known one to last so long.

“The electrode it used was an advanced type for its era.”