Twin successes for transplants | Gold Coast News | Local News in Gold Coast

MICHELLE and Stef Ashby are double-lung transplant recipients.

They are also twins.

Australian Organ Donor Week starts next week. For Michelle and Stef, it is a time of reflection and thanks to organ donors and their families.

“The week brings it all home that people and their families make the decision to donate their organs,” Michelle said.

“It is such a brave decision to make and these people are such beautiful people.”

Stef, who has had two double-lung transplants, said the awareness week was filled with mixed emotions.

“Most days I think about my donor and their family, but the week is a reminder of how lucky I am,” she said.

“We were both born with cystic fibrosis and 42 years ago doctors knew nothing about the lung disease,” Michelle said.

“It was only that our mum insisted something was wrong that we finally got tested at three and a half months old.

“She said we both had really rattly chests as little babies and she had two older daughters so she knew something was different with Stef and me.”

Michelle said although the girls were in and out of hospital, they grew up much like any other girls.

“We led pretty normal lives and we were typical teenagers who didn’t want people to know we had any type of illness.”

“We come from a sporty family so we tried everything.

“We were never going to be the strongest but I think playing so much sport helped both of us get to the age we have.”

Michelle and Stef had lung transplants late in life compared to other cystic fibrosis sufferers.

“I was 30 when I went on the waiting list 12 years ago and had the operation four years after that,” she said.

“Back then if you were on the waiting list you were given a pager because not everyone had mobile phones.

“I had to take this pager around everywhere and at the time I got the call I was living up at Airlie Beach.”

She said she had been out fishing when she was called for the operation.

“I had silent tears and I just started pacing thinking, ‘I can’t do it’ but my boyfriend at the time, David had already rung to book flights and was packing my things in a bag,” Michelle said.

“I got to the Sydney hospital just in time as there is only a certain period of time that the hospital can hold the lungs for the operation.

“I was scrubbed and in the operating room almost as soon as I got to the hospital.”

Michelle lived in Sydney for three months and she said she joined the gym while recovering.

“I couldn’t wait to get back into exercise and I decided I wanted to swim with my new lungs.”

“I’d never really swum before and I slipped into the pool and then couldn’t understand why I couldn’t swim the 50 metres.

“When I told my specialist he laughed and said just because I had new lungs didn’t mean I could swim the length of a pool.”

Michelle eased herself back into exercise and has now participated in four half-marathons on the Gold Coast.

“It took a lot of dedication and I never dreamed I could do that.”

Australian Organ Donor Awareness Week begins Monday, February 22, and aims to increase the community’s awareness of the benefits of organ and tissue donation.

• For further information on organ donation, visit www.donatelife.gov.au.