I keep an eye out for news stories and blog postings about lung transplant, cystic fibrosis and organ donation… If I see someone needs a morale boost – I leave a comment and do my best to leave them a little more inspired…
I love stumbling across letters from recipients to donor families… Recipients sometimes post them on their blogs. They’ve sent them to a family they may, or may never know, and sometimes they want their friends and family to know how they feel about this family, and about the person who saved their lives…
These letters almost always come from the depths of our souls…
Dear Donor Family,
Thank you.
Thank you isn't enough. Words are not enough. I can't imagine what grief and pain you and your loved ones have endured in the last 10 months. I only know how much my life has changed.
We’re saying “thank-you” for something we feel mere thanks will never, ever be enough… But we have to start somewhere…
This is a beautiful letter from a girl with cystic fibrosis. OK, I gravitate towards letters from CF patients because I have cystic fibrosis too – I share their experience – and sometimes I get to relive their thankfulness…
Last year, I was a shadow of myself. I lived in the hospital. I was on oxygen 24/7. I threw up multiple times a day and relied on a feeding tube for nutrition. I endured severe back pain and chest pain due to coughing; constantly trying to stay off the pain relieving medications that lowered my breathing rate. I shook constantly, my body ravaged by fevers caused by infections that filled my failing lungs. I was dying.
I was 23 years old and I had to imagine my life without me in it.
I also get to relive some of what we endure living with CF, and waiting for someone to save our lives. We all take a different journey, and we all face it with whatever strength we can muster. It’s another reminder how precious this gift truly is…
Now, ten months later....I am BACK! I am me again!!! I am filled with ecstatic energy every morning that I wake up and jump out of bed. I can walk, skip, cross-country ski, paddle and dance to my hearts content. Right before my 6 month anniversary I walked in the Sun Run with family and friends in honour of my donor. To give thanks with every step and every breath.
To tell the truth, it is so much more than the physical. Yes I can DO so many things that I'd never been able to do but more importantly... I can DREAM. I can imagine a future. I can make plans.
I can HOPE.
Can you imagine giving someone a gift like this? Can you imagine giving someone hope? Can you imagine getting hope? Can you imagine thanking someone for that?
These are my big plans. I also have many tiny victories that I celebrate every day. When I run up a flight of stairs I always pause at the top and give thanks for this second chance. Every time I tell my mum I love her. Every time I rock out with my little brother, windows down, sun shining. Every time I cuddle on the couch with my best friends, pj's on, mugs of tea in hand. Every time I jog to transplant clinic, my chest rising and falling with my quickly beating heart.
These may seem like insignificant moments but to me they are the world. They are my life.
I am ALIVE.
But I’m doing her an injustice by chopping up her letter like I did – read the whole thing the way she wrote it – the way she spoke to the family who saved her life – it’s beautiful…
65 Red Roses – My Donor Letter…
And please say a prayer for her Mom…
