Two years since my lung donor saved my life, I wish more people wanted to do the same for others

Thousands of people in the UK are waiting for a transplant, often in similar situations to mine. But without more people registering as donors, many of those may not be as lucky as I was

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Two years ago I got a call, that call would not only change my life but save it.

It was Friday 14 April and by that point I was on oxygen 24 hours a day in the hope that it would keep me alive long enough to receive that phone call and, along with it, the double lung transplant that would follow just a few hours later thanks to my donor and his family.

Sadly though, this happy ending isn’t the reality for everyone on the transplant list. Too many people are dying waiting. Viable organs aren’t being transplanted. But why? Because people have not registered as organ donors, or let their family know their wishes.

But by having a simple conversation or spending a few minutes documenting our wishes just in case the unthinkable happens, we could help reduce the risk of leaving vital questions like these unanswered.

I was born with cystic fibrosis, but I was lucky that for most of my childhood and young adulthood I had remained fairly well. Although I was nearing the average life expectancy of someone with cystic fibrosis (around 37 years), being sick wasn’t my normal.

Thanks to the determination of my parents to keep me well, I was still able to live what I think most would consider a very happy life, largely void of medical issues; progressing through school, studying then working, enjoying holidays, two gap years and the independence of living in London as a young adult.

But my health slowly declined and by November 2016 the life I had known started to crumble around me as infection after infection meant I could no longer survive with the lungs I was born with.

I spent most of that time in hospital and then at my parents’ home as I fought, with the support of an amazing medical team as well as those closest to me, to get well enough for the chance to live.

I could no longer walk across the room, let alone live independently. I wore a mask to force oxygen into my lungs and was on a constant stream of medications. A transplant was my only hope.

At the last count, at the end of March 2019, 6,093 people in the UK are waiting for a transplant, often in similar situations to mine, and the sad reality is that many of those people will not get the call that I did in time.

In recent months, the law has changed and from 2020 organ donation will become an opt-out system, but there is a very real fear this will, in fact, not have as much of a positive affect as people might expect.

The worry is that people will no longer register as organ donors or discuss their wishes with those closest to them, believing the decision has already been made for them, unaware that the law is actually not in action yet and won’t be until 2020. There are also fears that family members may not choose to offer organs for transplant if they do not know the deceased relative’s feelings.

Obviously, I wish that situation on no one. I know first hand how difficult it can be to discuss the possibilities of death and the practicalities around it with people who love you, but I urge everyone to at least consider doing it. Lives quite literally depend on it.

Organ donation can only happen in a small number of cases. Around 500,000 people die every year in the UK, yet only around 1 in 100 of them die in circumstances where their organs can be donated. But one person’s death could potentially save the lives of up to nine people; people who are daughters, mothers, husbands, children and friends who, through no fault of their own, have run out of options.