Fourteen years on, the van salesman is married, with an 11-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.
He has sent pictures of his family to the donor’s relatives via the NHS but has not received a reply.
“I wanted them to know I didn’t waste it,” he said.
“Every day is an absolute blessing. I used to have no quality of life at all.
“The fact that now I can go to the gym and have two kids is all just because someone said yes.”
Rands said organ donations were falling despite the UK system of deemed consent.
“You’d think that would increase the number of donors, but it’s actually dropped,” he said.
“You can have a donor card in your pocket for 20 years, but it still comes down to the decision of the family.”
Organ donations can only proceed with the donor family’s consent.
NHS Blood and Transplant said there had been more than 2,000 lost opportunities for transplants since April 2021, because relatives did not know what the potential donor wanted.
It urged people to mark World Heart Day by recording their wishes on the NHS App or the NHS Organ Donor Register, external.