10/05/2026
In honour of for 🫁
“Organ donation is not a tragedy, but it can be a beautiful light in the midst of one. To know that our loved one has gone on to save lives brings us that light.”
My heroic donor and her family are always in my heart. Without their courageous decision to say yes to organ donation, I would not be here today, cherishing every sweet second of this second chance at life.
Organ donation brings hope where there might otherwise be none. It truly is the greatest gift.”
Please about your decisions with your loved ones. 💙
Love Deborah. xXx
Over 7 years ago our very own Deborah, who was born with cystic fibrosis, received a double lung transplant. Without a courageous donor family saying yes to organ donation Deborah wouldn’t be savouring every sweet second of her second chance at life.
“24 hours after I was born in 1979, I was rushed to a specialist hospital for emergency surgery because I was unable to pass the meconium that newborn babies should. Part of my bowel had to be removed, and soon afterwards I was diagnosed with the recessive genetic condition Cystic Fibrosis (CF).
At that time, very little was understood about CF, and my mum was told that babies born with the condition were not expected to survive into childhood. Thanks to the dedication of the NHS, advances in care, and the love and support around me, my life unfolded very differently.
I have been incredibly fortunate to live a life rich in experiences, love, and purpose. I have travelled, completed two science degrees, married my soulmate Sean, qualified and worked as an osteopath, and built and ran my own osteopathic practice with him. I also experienced the heartbreak of losing Sean to cancer, a loss that changed me forever. Life has since brought me love again when I was fortunate enough to meet Neil and remarry.
Through every chapter, both joyful and painful, I remain deeply grateful for the life I have lived and for the adventure it has been, and continues to be. None of it would have been possible without the NHS and the extraordinary gift of organ donation.
From a young age, I was determined not to let CF define the limits of my life. I always wanted to find a way to manage my health and the daily lung and digestive treatments around the life I longed to live. Although navigating life with CF meant missing time at school and university, as well as holidays and precious family occasions because of illness and hospital stays, I learned to do as many of my treatments independently as possible so I could keep living life to the fullest.
I also did everything I could to stay as fit and strong as possible. Over the years, I swam, did gymnastics, competed in trampolining, enjoyed mountain biking, and later discovered pole fitness. I knew the medical outlook for CF, but I always held onto hope. I truly believed that by staying as physically and mentally as strong as I could, I was giving myself the very best chance.
After 36 years of repeated lung infections and progressive lung damage, I developed double pneumonia in October 2015 and was not expected to survive. I did survive, but it left me with severe lung damage, dependent on full-time oxygen and non-invasive ventilation.
In October 2017 despite my determination and best efforts, I reached a point where life was simply an existence and I came to terms that a place on the transplant list was my only hope. I could do little more than sit and watch life pass by, I needed full-time care, full-time supplementary oxygen and ventilation, and could no longer do anything physically for myself.
After a year on the transplant list I was transferred to intensive care and moved onto the urgent transplant list. I received four calls for transplant, but heartbreakingly none of those donor lungs were suitable enough to go ahead.
Then, one day in October 2018, after two weeks on the urgent list, I received my fifth call. This time, the donor lungs were suitable.
It was just in time. When I was placed under anaesthetic, my own lungs failed completely and I had to be placed on an ECMO machine to keep me alive while the surgeons removed my CF lungs. My carbon dioxide levels were so high that it took over an hour to stabilise me enough for surgery to continue. Then, as the team began removing my CF lungs, the severity of infection in my body sent me into septic shock. Somehow, the surgeons managed to stabilise me again. They took a chance on me, and they gave me the greatest gift imaginable: a second chance at life.
My recovery after transplant felt nothing short of miraculous and with the support of my husband Neil, I relearned how to stand, walk, and climb stairs. In less than four weeks after transplant, I was well enough to return home.
Just five months later, I was climbing the fells in the Lake District with Neil and my dog Lincoln. After everything I had navigated, that moment felt extraordinary.
Life after transplant has brought a different set of health challenges, but my double lung transplant did far more than save my life. It gave me back a future, and with it, a quality of life I would otherwise never have known.
Because of organ donation, I have been able to keep living the life I love. I have been able to make more precious memories with the people I love most, return to my vocation as an osteopath as well as a hypnotherapist and NLP professional, and continue running the practice I established 18 years ago. I have been able to support my husband through the loss of his dad, to be there for our beloved dogs Hermione and Lincoln as they crossed the rainbow bridge, and to open my heart and home to Genevieve and Re*****on.
Every single morning, I still wake up and count my lucky stars for every breath I take.
After my transplant, I wrote to my donor’s family to thank them for their selfless decision that saved my life. In return, I received a beautiful letter that I treasure, sharing more about my donor, what an incredible lady she was, and how much she had helped others through her work. Knowing that her family found comfort in donating her organs, and that their wish for me was to use these fabulous lungs to laugh a lot, makes me even more determined to do exactly that.
They shared these beautiful words with me:
“Organ donation is not a tragedy, but it can be a beautiful light in the midst of one. To know that our loved one has gone on to save lives brings us that light.”
My heroic donor and her family are always in my heart. Without their courageous decision to say yes to organ donation, I would not be here today, cherishing every sweet second of this second chance at life.
Organ donation brings hope where there might otherwise be none. It truly is the greatest gift.”
Please about your decisions with your loved ones, say and register your decision at NHS Organ Donation
