Seven years of new life for which I am eternally grateful

Today marks the seventh year that I have been breathing with someone else's lungs 

I won't say that this year has gone entirely smoothly,but I am still here and still enjoying life

  

The problem with transplants is not the surgery but the medication that is required to keep the organs against the body's inclination to reject anything foreign including my new lungs   

 I had got a six month holiday from transplant clinic as at the beginning of the year all was well with my health, I had lost weight and my lung function was good.But other things in my body were not going as well as I would have liked

I attended my renal appointment and was informed that there were concerns about my Kidney function it was deteriorating and some of my medication could be causing it.

The medication that I take for immune repression is known to cause chronic kidney problems but this is a drug I cant stop taking due to organ rejection. But it seem that the drug that I take for my Diabetes and medication I had been taking for an infection on my leg may also been contributing.

The consultant was also keen to do a biopsy on my kidney which I was not happy about 

I was told to stop taking these tablets or risk kidney failure and need to go on dialysis.Ultimately I would need a kidney transplant!    

I stopped the antibiotic and went back to the lower dose that had been recommended by transplant hospital the diabetic medication presented more of a problem Without the tablets my diabetes would not be controlled, there was no other solution than for me to go onto twice daily Insulin injection!

I was fed up!! I knew that I might end up on insulin but I hoped it would not be so soon.

It took me a while to get used to and a while to adjust the dose to my diet.

I had to send my driving licence back and was issued with a five year one and have to adhere to strict guidelines about testing my blood glucose levels when driving 

These changes had some positive and negative effects

The postive effects on my kidney function was gradual but allowed the consultant to feel happier and stop talking about the biopsy  

The negative effects was weight increase I had put back on all the weight I had lost and was suffering with swollen legs again, a problem I had not had for quite a while    

I dont want to seem negative the problems I have had are small compared with other people I follow on my blog roll I would suggest you have a look

 Again this year I have said goodbye to more transplant fiends and personal friends I had known for many years 

I have also moved into the 55 - 65 demographic on forms I fill out, something I thought I would never have to do I am in the old age range now but it is something to celebrate! 

My son has passed his full bike licence this month and has got a new job starting soon.

My daughter is doing well in her University course. 

My wife & I celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary at the end of this month after 30 years together. 

LIFE IS GOOD 

Finally I heard some great news today the day of my 7 Year transplant anniversary  

The prime minister Theresa May announced in her tory party speech that the government will be changing the law to presumed consent for Organ Donation 

This would requiring people who dont want to have there organs used in transplants to opt out 

I hope that this will allow many more people to have the chance at a new life as I have I am so glad 😊 😊 😊

                                                    

6 Years and still going strong

Another year has passed and I am still here
With each passing year I give thanks to the 45yr old man that signed the donor register and who's family gave the go ahead for me to receive his lungs

I have looking after his gift and kept his lungs alive inside me and have been able to live a full life because of this I have met some lovely people as part of this journey and I am sad to say that some are not with us now
One of the things that happens on this journey that the people who start off the journey with you sometimes only stay for part of the road you travel. This has been particularly true this year with several of my fellow transplantees having passed on and many more having life changing and life threatening complications.I wont go into a in depth listing of the people concerned but it becomes quite hard to keep positive in the light of all the issues people are facing.

But this is the deal you sign up for 

Swap one life threatening condition  for a slightly easier to manage life changing condition  

People think that a transplant means you are cured of the issues you had. It is true that you dont need to use oxygen and may not need constant inhalers and I lost my life long asthma.
But there is a cost....

I have ended up on life long Bipap and daily nebulisers for an infection I had while waiting for my lungs.The drugs have taken their toll on my body and my kidneys are getting damaged by meds.
I have had a skin infection this year which took ages to diagnose and will take 6 months of pills to clear.
I could have been worse as I am also prone to skin cancer because of the medication I take and need to use high factor sun cream (50-60 factor) whenever I am out in the sun.I an in danger of broken bones and  mood swings due to the steroids I take. I am also diabetic now.

But I am doing better than many I know.

Other people who started this journey have suffered more One person I know has had to have a Kidney transplant another has had complications due to reflux and is now permanently on tube feeding to preserve her lungs.Another friend suffered complications with a preexisting condition and had major abdominal surgery.Finally another friend is now confined to a mobility scooter to get around due to problems with medication side effects.

        To all those people who are struggling with health issues I send my prayers and wishes that things will get better for you soon.Know I will do all I can to help you in any way I can!

Those who are waiting for transplants I hope your call comes soon.Finally to those who are no longer with us it was a privilege to have known you and been part of your lives rest in peace.  

On a positive note my health has been good  except for at the beginning of the year Christmas time I felt rough and my lung function had taken a hit I was worried due to my diagnosis of chronic rejection I was told by Harefield Hospital that they wanted to do a Bronch and get a CT scan this was postponed and when I did get the investigations they showed inflammation but no definite cause.  
I was able to slowly improve and I have been able to lose quite a bit of weight which has helped and my last visit saw my lung function improve allowing me the magical six months off clinic

What is the main point to this post apart from celebration you may ask?

I think the thing I want to share is 

LIFE GOES ON

Not for all - Too quickly at times - it doesn't stop 

A New Life is not new it is a precious extension

Transplantation does not change your life but it can change you

It is important that you live that life to the full 

Do the things that are important to you.

You are the only one on this journey 

You may walk the road with others 

But at the end it is a road we walk alone.

Try to make this walk a happy one but be true to yourself

Help those you meet along the way if you can 

Share wisdom and happy experiences

Have no regrets you are playing with extra time

Seek joy and love in the world there is plenty if you look

Have fun wherever you can find it :)     

   This next year I hope to be able to do some traveling visit people I know on this journey with me. 

I hope to go abroad and travel England and Scotland and Wales 

We never know what is around the next corner in our lives but I intend to go and take a look!!! 

    

Four year Anniversary

This time four years ago I was recovering from the biggest change to my life since my birth

Thanks to my donor I was able to breath again after five years deteriorating to the state of a respiratory cripple on oxygen constantly to breath.      

It seems like a lifetime ago and in a sense it is!

It has been a year since my last entry in this blog why is this I here you ask? truth is I have been getting on with daily life. There have been ups and downs in my health but mostly I have been trying to live a normal life and not let my medical conditions rule my life. 

It took a long while to get over the process of transplantation and the changes it brings with it,

I was told by my doctor that transplantation is not a cure it is swapping one serious condition for a new one.At the time I didn't fully accept what that might mean, I think now I understand!  

How have you been?
 a question many people ask when they met you after a long time. For people with a long term medical condition this becomes a very awkward one to answer! This year I have tried to answer in the expected way
"I am fine how about you"

 On the whole people don't want all the details, if you tell them they get scared for you and worry what to say to you. Truth is the only people who know what you are talking about are fellow transplantees.But for the purposes of the blog I shall briefly fill in some details.

I have had to deal with a few health issues this year not least the issue of chronic rejection! It has not cause me any overt problems as such but the thought of it being present has been hard to deal with. 

It is strange that when I was really unwell I dealt with many more problems and was somehow able to ignore them and get on with life better than the unseen issue of a worsening of the rejection!

Another issue that has taken some getting used to has been my Diabetes I have struggled with the effect that it has had on my life and the restrictions, but it seems that a the moment it is not causing any of the health issues that come long term my eyesight is okay and peripheral nerves seem good checks through my GP seem to be in the range that is expected.

I did have a issue with some sore skin areas on my right leg that was worrying me. But after a skin biopsy in the summer it turned out to be Porokeratosis. This a skin condition that can occur due to the medication I take for the transplant. I was happy to find out that it wasn't skin cancer, a risk factor for all transplants, but there doesn't seem to be much that can be done for it, and it does need to be monitored as it can develop into skin cancer in a small amount of cases therefore I will be attending Dermatology dept from now on.

RSV     

The most major issue this year was being admitted to hospital with RSV!

It started as a cold just before Liz went to Manchester with our daughter to look at accommodation for University then it got rapidly worse over that day to the point were I became breathless a call to Harefield confirmed that a hospital admission would be on the cards and when my son got back from college that night a ambulance was taking me to the local hospital.

That night I was back on 4 litres of oxygen and quite worried two days later I was back in Harefield on IV antibiotics after a bronchoscopy and a diagnosis of RSV a common respiratory illness in children for a immunosuppressed person it can lead to pneumonia and death so i was glad that I got treatment when I did even though  I had to spend the whole of the stay isolated as I was a risk to the all the other transplant patients.

  

Finally a couple of months ago just after my holiday I managed to brake my ankle walking down a hill after spending the night waiting for the demolition of the cooling towers of a local landmark didcot power station and spent some time on crutches :(

It has not all been bad although I hoped to get away a few times this year I was able to go on holiday with the family to Sussex for what would be the last time although we had done most things before we did manage to ride on the new Brighton Big wheel

 

and saw some of the sights before having a nice meal 

Brighton Street art

 
 I also managed to get to Hasting on Mayday to see the largest amount of motorbikes in one place I have ever seen. 41000 attended and filled the town with bikes I was there on my bike with my son Mine is the bike with red luggage on the right of the photo

Another interesting event happening on the same day was the local may day celebration "The Jack of the green" where you can find many unusual characters!

 "I am fine it is all the others" 

This is another stock response to the how are you question. 

In this last year this has been particularly  poignant as some of the people I follow on this blog are no longer with us now or are having a bad time of it 

Firstly Kerry who wrote Come walk in my shoes... did not make it to receive new lungs and passed away peacefully on the 21st March 2014 for those who want to support the new charity set up in her name please see The Kerry Alex Thorpe Trust  you can read more about Kerry on her 

FB transplant page 

Another person no longer with us is Hazel who wrote  Hazel's Blog - The road to transplant she was called to transplant and received new lungs but unfortunately died from blood loss on 25th September as you can imagine it has shocked me and all the people who were following her progress:(

The final person I have found out is having a very bad time is Jodie who writes Jodiecf Blog she is suffering with very bad chronic rejection of her heart and lungs and is waiting to be put on the transplant list again please if you could offer some support to her and comment on her blog I am sure she would appreciate it.
On a positive note the people I mentioned in my last blog entry last year are dong well Kirstie  is doing well since her second transplant Kimberly is getting better after her problems last year. Kath has recovered really well and is living life to the full since receiving her new heart and lungs
Katie is doing well since her transplant and is now involved with LLTGL as a advocate
If you want to help this very worthwhile charity please think about buying one of the new

 Transplant Troopers Calender 

It contains several people that I follow on this Blog and will help with educating people about transplant and organ donation

Other things that have happened in our household this year is my son Alex is now a man having reached 18 this summer. I was able to join him and buy him his first pint of beer in the local pub, something I thought I would never be able to do when I was ill.

My daughter Ellie has left home to go to Manchester Metropolitan University and my wife Liz and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on 23 October after 27 years together.

Our family 12th September 2014

All these things would not have happened if it wasn't for my donor leaving me his lungs for that I will be eternally grateful to him and his loved ones who allowed the donation to go ahead 

Please if you haven't signed the donor register please consider doing it now 

and if you do or even if you don't 

please let your loved ones know so they can honor your wishes

Sign The Donor Register 

   Click Here        

Three years Anniversary - Rejecting My Rejection

Hello again,
It has been a while since I posted in this blog six months to be exact!
lots has been happening to me and to others I know and I have done a few things that I have been putting of since my transplant.
Firstly I want to bring you up to speed on my health I know that I said in my last post that there was no evidence of any rejection just inflammation this was an area of focal pneumonia that was treated with six weeks of increased steroids 30mg instead of my normal 10 mg but something else was found
 Bronchiolitis Obliterans
Transplanted lungs are susceptible to different types of rejection.
Acute cellular rejection – Acute cellular rejection is the predominant type of acute lung allograft rejection and is mediated by T lymphocyte recognition of foreign major histocompatibility complexes (MHC), also known as human leukocyte antigens (HLA) in humans.
Humoral rejection – Humoral rejection, which is less common than acute cellular rejection, is mediated by antibodies directed against donor HLA epitopes. These antibodies may have been present in the recipient at a low level prior to transplant or may develop afterwards. Generally, if HLA antibodies are identified in the potential recipient, the corresponding HLA antigens are avoided in a donor (so-called virtual cross-match). Hyperacute rejection is a rare form of humoral rejection that occurs in the first 24 hours following lung transplantation in recipients who have preformed anti-HLA antibodies.
Bronchiolitis obliterans – Bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is the predominant feature of chronic lung transplant rejection and is manifest pathologically as dense fibrous scar tissue affecting the small airways. Clinically, BO is associated with a progressive decline in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). While BO is felt to be largely a manifestation of chronic lung transplant rejection, several other risk factors have been identified. Less commonly, chronic vascular rejection is also present and manifests pathologically as atherosclerosis in the pulmonary vasculature

 The doctors have also done a impedance test on me as i mentioned in last post, that proved negative, so the reason for my BO is not gastric reflux leading to damage to my lungs. I was relieved about that but obviously concerned about what had caused the rejection.I went into a bit of a decline in my mood and the high levels of prednisone were helping me physically, but mentally I was a mess.It was really hard for my wife and children to be around me due to my moods and irritation.
Gradually my breathing became easier due the steroid treatment and when I returned to my next clinic appointment my FEV 1 had improved to a level near to what it was before the rejection episode. The doctor was happy with this, but when I asked him about the long term prospects for my lung function he was not able to give any guarantees,he just said we will have to wait and see over the next few months. He also told me that the blood test they had done had indicated higher than normal blood sugars and that I would need to get a fasting blood sugar test done when I had reduced my steroids back to a my normal dose as this could be the cause.
Just my luck when I did get my fasting bloods done I was called and admitted into hospital with a blood glucose level of 55mmols/l,  not good and requiring urgent treatment.So I have increased my tablets by a few more as I have now been diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetes.
I have now got my blood levels under control again but not before experiencing my first Hypo while I was out on my Birthday drink this resulted in me passing out and cutting my head open in a packed pub in front of the band that was playing how embarrassing was that !!
The one positive effect that has happened is that I was able to lose a bit of weight and it has given my Diet a boost not having any sugar :) As I was leaving hospital I managed to take this picture to post out for Transplant week reminding me how lucky I am !!

what else has happened ? well quite a lot. I decided to deal with the issue of rejection in a positive way by getting on with life and doing things that I had put on hold.
I went out and bought a motorbike

Honda Crossrunner (VFR 800)

At the same time I bought my son a bike too

Honda CBF 125

I was able to get on holiday and had a great time in Hastings with my wife's family although I haven't been able to do all the traveling I was hoping for it was great.I was able to take a picture that I have been waiting to take for a few years while there

It is a view looking towards beachy head and shows the Seven Sisters cliffs from the Coastguard cottages It was at the bottom of a steep incline and was quite a walk. One I would have been unable to  manage before my transplant

I had a birthday at the end of August and moved into my second half century on this earth. Although much of that night is a loss to me due to Woods Navy rum and an encounter with a PA system ( see above ) I have now got a permanent reminder on my forehead of the nights escapades.    

When we got back from our holiday we started to sort out the house and managed to clear a skips worth out rubbish out of the house and we hope that we will be able to clear a lot more in the near future. Much of which had been left from before I got my transplant and we hope that now we will be able to get a new bed and furniture now we have space and I will also be able to move my mothers furniture I was left in her will from my brothers house.

I have been pondering my life a lot and realized that I am so lucky. 

My life has been limited by my illness but I have also have  been given two gifts, the gift of life from a 45 year old man  who gave me his lungs, for which I will be forever grateful.

My second gift is I know my life will not be as long as many others I know, due to the issues of transplantation. This is such a good thing, so many people go though their life thinking they will live forever, I know that is not going to happen!!  Therefore I try to make use of this precious time in the best way I can.People in the transplant community know this, although we don't speak much about it. we don't want to temp fate. this has been brought home to me recently.
A fellow transplantee Kirstie Tancock  whom I have wrote about in my blog before has suffered major rejection and needed to be put back on the transplant list after just two years with new lungs. Kirstie is a very healthy fitness pole instructor who had been suffering problems about the same time as I had problems and was admitted for my bronch from them on she had deteriorated we were all worried that she would die. God intervened and with the help of the Harefield Hospital team and a Donor she was able to receive a second set of lungs and is a present doing very well.
My other friend Kimberly Liane Kneil who received her transplant last year has continued to have problems since we met. She is waiting to here about a operation to help with reflux that has been damaging her lungs.I really hope she will be able to get her operation soon so she can get better again.

Why should this have happened to these young newly transplanted women why not me I had a long life before transplant? They both have their lives yet to live!! These are questions I have asked myself and there is no easy answer as to why, things can change very quickly for any one who has been through a transplant.
Only one thing is sure  we need more people to sign up as donors.

Finally some Great News
One of the people I follow on my blog got her call for a new set of heart and lungs her name is Kath and she got the call after two years on the waiting list

You can read her blog here

  And I have included another blog from a 15 year old girl called kate

You can read her blog here
She got her new lungs around the same time as Kirstie Tancock got retransplanted

As I write this It is three years today since I had my lungs transplanted and I was able to live again!
There are no words to adequately explain how grateful I am to my donor!!! He has allowed me to see my children grow up and go to college.I was able to celebrate my mothers 80th birthday with her before she passed.I have been able swim again achieving more distance that when I was younger, see my son ride his first motorbike and will be celebrating my fourth wedding anniversary on 23rd Oct after 26 years together with my lovely wife Liz.
I am hoping for many more transplant anniversaries, but am so happy with what I have had so far, everything after this is a bonus and I will be living it to the full :)
 If you would like to help someone else live

 We need more donors please if you haven't signed up as a donor and want to Click here

Then tell your loved ones your wishes so they will know what you want done

Two Year Lung Transplant Anniversary!!!

Two Year Ago a Stranger Saved My Life

I am humbled and very grateful that 24 months ago a stranger gave me a precious gift. 

Now that gift lives within me and has given me a new life. 

5am on Monday 4 October 2010 I was given a new set of lungs from a 45yr old man a heart beating donor and  my life changed forever.

I remember the day vividly, the long day waiting to see if it was a yes or no, the tearful goodbye to my family outside the operating theater, but it also feels like a lifetime ago at the same time - in a sense it is!

I was dying, my old life was coming to a end and I wasn't sure if I would see Christmas that year. My lungs were down to the volume of a coke can and oxygen was my constant companion. If you want to read how bad things had got have a look at Waiting One Year On

How are things now?

It took a while for me to recover and for the first year things were up and down it took me 18 months to feel like myself again but now things are good.  I have been able to start to work through my list of things to do when I got my new lungs 

Walk in the countryside

I am able to walk in the countryside and take photos again:) I am not able to walk all day like when I was younger but I don't have to worry about parking next to somewhere I want to go to. I was able to go on a photowalk at Rutherford Appleton Lab which I found challenging but I was able to keep up with others.

Swimming  

I am able to swim again and am doing quite well. 

After 7 weeks since I started swimming again after nearly ten years, I have improved from not being able to  swim a length of the 25m pool without stopping because I was out of breath to my present level.

I am now able to swim three miles each week. 

I do at least a mile each session and it now takes me about a hour and half to do 64 lengths. I am able to swim the whole mile without stopping now. I was told by the one of the lifeguard I am swimming further weekly than any of their lifeguards do.

I have gained so much confidence from doing this and feel much fitter now.

This is something I had found this hard since I found out after a MRI, that a previous back injury has deteriorated since my transplant and is now leading to a bit of sciatic discomfort upon walking and running is a non starter

This last week I managed to do 70 lengths but as long as I manage a mile each time I am happy I am only able to do breast stroke at present but I am aiming to improve my use of the crawl and increase the distance I can swim using it, then maybe I will be able to do more lengths as I can swim faster using the crawl.  

Fishing

This is something that I have get to sort out. I hope that my son and I will be able to get out over the winter and do a bit of pike fishing and maybe next year it will possible to get out on a boat and do some sea fishing.

Glastonbury Tor

I had hope that I would be able to attend Glastonbury festival this year but unfortunately I was unable to do this.I still use overnight Bi-Pap and this means that I would need to have access to power to use this and my nebuliser and unfortunately this is not possible as camping is the order of the day when you attend the festival.I hope in the future it might be possible but not just yet.

I would still like to go to Glastonbury town and walk up the tor and will hopefully do this soon. 

Motorbike

those of you who have read the blog for a while will know that my mother recently passed away suddenly in June at the age of 80 yrs thanks to my donor i was able to celebrate her birthday with her and the family but sadly she was unable to celebrate my birthday with me in August. 

But her legacy has allowed me to consider a personal goal that I set myself before my transplant to ride a motorbike again before I die. I hope that I will be able to realize this goal in the near future maybe even go to the TT on the Isle of man.

Day to Day 

Things are good I recently went to Harefield Hospital  for a overnight stay to get my abdominal CT scan done. This was to check the reason for intermittent swelling in my right leg. 

They put me on a drip to protect my kidneys from the contrast dye they use in the scan.

Made a few holes in my arms and found nothing to indicate why my leg has been swelling.

The positive is they also found nothing untoward that would cause concern so I was pleased about that.

I have continued to lose weight and have been using the pedometer to encourage me to walk more. 

I will now be going onto monthly meetings for the next nine months at my weight loss group and will be meeting up with the group on Friday to arrange some meetings for weekly support.

The final duty to my mum will be happening this month on the 19th when we lay her ashes to rest at the local village church 

St Mary the Virgin in Kidlington

I have fond memories of this church and my brother had his wedding blessed there. It is a lovely place for the children to visit and I hope that mum will be happy there I hope that I will be able to make her proud with my continued improving health and fitness. 

The new season has started at the camera club and we have our first members evening tonight.I will be putting some pictures into a completion from my recent photowalk at  RAL,

Model of telescope in visitors center at RAL

I have also done a few night pictures and am hoping to learn more about my most recent purchase, a new 430 Canon Flash gun.

With the new committee in place and the new website up and running Wallingford photographic Club 

It all feels very positive, there are still some of my pictures on the site if you look in the competition galleries. I hope that I will be able to have my own gallery in the near future in the members area watch this space....    

  

Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and if you haven't signed the donor register yet you can by clicking 

HERE 

Help someone else have new life after you are gone  

But please let your loved ones know your wishes so they will know what you wanted to happen :)

I have just returned from Harefield Hospital where I was happy to see a friend of mine Kirstie Tancock complete a epic 180 mile bike journey from Exeter near where she lives to Harefield Hospital where she received her life saving double lung transplant.
She completed the ride with a team of supporters including her husband and they arrived in Harefield at just before 17.00 after three days of cycling!! You can read her blog "2nd Chance @ life"   it is on my blog roll

I thought That I would share some of the photos that I managed to take while I was there. I will be sending some of these to the LLTGL website  and to Kirstie  Kirstie is a advocate for LLTGL.

The end of a very long road as Kirstie arrives at Harefield Hospital

Kirstie

Kirstie & Stu her husband in blue LLTGL vests

The whole team who competed the ride

 I would like to congratulate Krstie and all the people who joined her on her ride raising money for a great set of charities including Harefield charitable fund, Live life then give life, CF trust and East Devon cystic fibrosis quality of life fund.

One thing I would like to add is if you would like to help there is still time to make a donation. Sponsor Kirstie and the team so they can achieve their target of £3000

Kirstie's Big Breath Bike Ride

 If you have been inspired by This blog post to join the organ donation register Click here and help someone live a new life after your death, please tell your loved ones about your wishes so they don't have to guess!  you may regret it later if you don't 

18 Months Of New Life With New Lungs

I have now been transplanted 18 months and time has rushed by!!

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was kissing my wife and children goodbye at the operating theatre doors not knowing if I would be saying goodbye for the last time.... and then waking up to a new life.

This last week I have been spending time with my children as they are on half term If it wasn't for my donor I would never have made it to this point. I have been able to see them through to the finish of their education at school and I am able to watch them move on to further education,  my daughter is now half way through her A levels and looking forward to university. While my son is has a offer to start a course in furniture making at the local further education college in September and is really looking forward to it.

I have also had the pleasure this week  of celebrating 25 years since my wife and I first met.

She was a general nurse student on her placement in my hospital, I was a third year student looking towards my final exams. It was her last night at the hospital before returning to Eastbourne where she was training when fate brought us together. We spent that evening  in the hospital social club getting to know each other, it was love at first sight.

 We have been seeing each other ever since and  I love her more with each day we are together

We married while I was waiting for my lung transplant and will celebrate our third anniversary in October, just after my second lung transplant anniversary       

I cant say that it has all been a easy ride I had some problems early on and then got shingles last year and it has taken a while for me to feel myself again and get my confidence back after a long period of chronic illness. I had a long list of things I would do,some of which I have done some are yet to come. 

 The most important have been the little things like; 

• Walking up stairs without worrying about breathlessness.

• Not needing inhalers for my asthma that I suffered from for most of my life.

• Being able to go to events and activities with my children,without them being embarrassed about my oxygen tanks and breathlessness,

• Cooking food on a barbecue or even being around a barbecue without choking and coughing.

• Having confidence in my abilities to look after myself again 

• Being able to have a bath without help

•  last but not least, being alive and not scared that I will die 

All these things are the result of a courageous man who thought about others and his love ones who consented to his wishes..A 45 year old man who I will always be eternally grateful to, signed the donor register and decided that that someone should  live after his death.

I am one of those people!!

Other good things that have happened this last week is that I entered the annual portfolio competition with the following pictures 

Fun at the Fair

It was judged the best digital entry and won first place!!! 

I was so happy this is the second time in four seasons that I have won first place in the digital portfolio:) 

First time I won was my first year in the camera club I have included the pictures that won "my village" in 16.4 2009 before my transplant 

The girl in yellow dancing around the maypole on the right of the picture is my daughter when she was much younger at a school fete at her primary school

I would also urge you to check out the "Transplant People Daily" available by scrolling to bottom of these blog posts now, where you will find an embedded widget.

If you like it please feel free to subscribe:)

Finally I would like you to consider Organ donation if you have not already.help someone like myself or one of the great people I follow on this blog to live a happier and more productive life

You can click the heart here and register now in the UK