“I am really delighted at the progress Rachael has made. She truly is an incredible young woman who’s continued campaign to bring donor registration to the public domain has been phenomenal. “
Mr Nizar Yonan
UHSM Director of Transplantation
A young woman from Manchester, who inspired thousands to sign up to the donor register, is recovering well after doctors at UHSM undertook the double lung transplant operation that will give her a second chance of life.
Rachael Wakefield has spoken for the first time of her life with new lungs, and how she cheated death. Rachael says she is getting used to being able to speak in complete sentences and talk and walk at the same time after years of struggle.
Her courage inspired more than 13,000 people to join the organ donor register. Now two months on from a 10-hour double lung swap, Rachael hopes her happy ending will inspire others to sign up.
She said: “I could not be more grateful. I will never take a single breath for granted now. I knew I was very sick, especially in the last couple of weeks before my operation. I thought it was too late. “My doctors have told me my lungs were in a very bad way, worse than they thought, and even though I knew I was sick that was scary. I know now I did not have long left – my call came just in time."
“When I woke up I was just glad to be alive. It has only been two months but already I am so much better. This whole experience has definitely changed me, it has changed who I am as a person – I could not be more grateful to be alive.”
Rachael was so sick she had to drop out of college after three months, but now she hopes to train as a pharmacist. She had a rare condition which means her lungs have only worked at a sixth of their capacity since she was 13. She had become increasingly poorly and needed oxygen 24 hours a day. She was one of more than 400 people waiting for a transplant in Greater Manchester.
Less than a quarter of the region’s population is on the organ donor register – well below the national average. Nizar Yonan, UHSM's Director of Transplantation, says "10,000 people in the UK currently need a transplant and approximately 1,000 will die waiting each year as there are not enough organs available. Through Rachael’s efforts and continued campaign thousands more people have signed up to the register - but we still need more people to do this.”
You can follow Rachel's progress on her blog by clicking here.
To register as an organ donor call 0300 1232323 or go to www.organdonation.nhs.uk.