Mr Sutton (49), who has cystic fibrosis, knew things were getting bad earlier this year when he could barely walk five or six metres inside his Dunedin house without having to grab the back of a chair as he fought to draw breath.
Since being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 3 months, he has always been keen on physical exercise: walking, swimming, and riding horses for 16 years until he could do it no longer, and going to the gym.
But early this year, even routine activities like getting dressed were getting too hard.
''It was getting impossible. I was just so out of breath.''
''I thought I might make it to next year.
''Looking back, I would not have lived that long.
'' I just got to the stage where I could not clear my lungs and medication was not working.''
And his life did not feel immediately different when he woke after his big operation at Auckland Hospital on July 26, having become the 176th person in this country to undergo a lung transplant.
Since the operation there has been a lot of painstaking rehabilitation, including an initial two months in Auckland, gradually building up his fitness and ability to exercise.
Commenting yesterday during Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Week, also called Bubbles Week, Mr Sutton said he was still not completely well, but was grateful to be able to walk again and to tend his garden.
''It's just nice to be able to walk.''
And he has since done ''a lot of walking'', sometimes up to 2km, which was previously impossible.
Today is the second day of Cystic Fibrosis Otago's annual street appeal. Mr Sutton is one of the oldest people in Otago with cystic fibrosis to have received a lung transplant.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects most critically the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver and intestines.
Thick mucus often causes breathing problems, and related persistent infections contribute to progressive lung damage.
Lung transplants are often needed when people are in their 30s or earlier.
Cystic Fibrosis Otago chairman Julian Cox said Mr Sutton was a ''shining example'' of the benefits of regular physical exercise for everyone, including those with cystic fibrosis, and of the value of taking medication diligently and undergoing the required regular physiotherapy treatment.
His case also highlighted the importance of lung transplants and the need to improve New Zealand's relatively low rate of organ donation, Mr Cox said.
