KAREN SANDER’S heart was racing as she drove from her home at Rochedale South to The Prince Charles Hospital at Chermside West in December, 1994.

She jokes that her heart racing was not unfamiliar to her, having a resting heart rate of 120 beats a minute, up to double the speed of an average adult.

This was only a few months after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. The condition went untreated and misdiagnosed as asthma for 18 years. It was only when she took her youngest child,, Jayden, who was two weeks old at the time, to a GP appointment that she was diagnosed.

“I had the same GP that took me though pregnancy and she asked if I still had that noise on my chest ... and sent me off for a chest X-ray,” Mrs Sander said. “I was on the waiting list (for a heart transplant) within two weeks.”

Conceding she was shocked by the thought of needing a transplant but not overly concerned, Mrs Sander said she now realised how close she came to not watching her children — Jessie, 25 and Jayden, now 22 — grow up. “I should have been dead,” she said, with no hint of exaggeration.

“They didn’t tell me at the time, but afterwards they told me how serious it was.

“They just said I had a big heart. Cardiomyopathy is an enlarged heart, so I’m joking around saying, ‘I know I have a big heart.’ ”

She went from playing netball and squash every week to waiting at home with a beeper to let her know there was a heart for her.

After two “false alarms”, when the transplant beeper finally went off 44 days after she was placed on the waiting list, she became the 100th person to receive a heart transplant at The Prince Charles Hospital.

Five weeks later, she married Mark. Since then she plays squash every week at Acacia Ridge and competes in the World Transplant Games.

She said she was thankful to her donor and their family for giving her the life she has today. “I always wanted to communicate with my donor’s family. It took me a while to work out what to say ... but all I could say was thank you.”

“Her husband replied that he was happy I had her heart, because the best thing about his wife was her heart.”

SOMEONE HAD PASSED AWAY FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO GET THIS GIFT

MATTY Hempstalk knows the pain and suffering even a serious illness has on a person’s family, and can only imagine what that pain would be like for his family if he had not been given his “second second-chance”.

It’s that knowledge and understanding which meant when the Woolloongabba resident had his second kidney transplant in 2005 — in his late 20s — that he felt more sadness than relief.

“On the outside, everyone is happy — my family and friends — but on the inside, I knew that another family was in mourning because they had lost a loved one,” he said as he made the trek from the Sunshine Coast, where he was visiting friends, to the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

“We went to the hospital and did the tests, and again everyone was happy, but inside, again, I was trying to deal with the fact that someone had passed away for me to be able to get this gift — to live life to the full.”

As a child, he was diagnosed with reflux nephropathy — a condition which damages the kidneys because of the backward flow of urine into the kidney.

“I was diagnosed at age 3, so the damage was too severe by then, which led to me going onto dialysis at 13.”

“My mum (a living donor) was able to donate, so it was a short stint (on dialysis).”

That first transplant came when he was 14. “That went really well for 11 years.”

When the kidney failed, the then 25-year-old had to go back to dialysis, and back on the transplant waiting list.

The call 4½ years later made him feel sick — with mixed emotions of relief, but more so for his friends and family; and the grief for a stranger he would never meet and the sorrow for a grieving family who made a selfless decision to save his life.

“This one’s been going 12 years. I was a little bit (anxious) coming up to that 11-year anniversary (when his body rejected the first organ transplant).

“There’s been a few hiccups along the way so it’s had plenty of time to fail if it wanted to, but I think I’ve got one that wants to fight for a long time.”

Originally from New Zealand, he conceded one of the reasons why he moved to Australia was guilt when his kidney failed. He did not want his family — particularly his mother — to go through it all again. He said he could never fully convey how grateful he was to his mother for the first transplant that helped him live a normal childhood, and an anonymous stranger for giving him the life he has today — active, healthy and happy, with more than a few medals from World Transplant Games to his name.

LITTLE RILEY’S SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE

“Their decision saved Riley’s life,” Sarah Scott says.

As she watches her now one-year-old play outside, laughing at her favourite animation on the TV, Hey Duggee, and dancing to The Wiggles — the young mum knows not to take for granted these precious moments.

At six weeks, while having her immunisation needles, the GP was concerned about Riley’s jaundice.

“I knew then it was something serious when they sent us to hospital. She had tests for four days, and was diagnosed with biliary atresia,” Ms Scott said.

The rare disease destroys the bile ducts, which carry bile from the liver to the intestine.

Because the bile is unable to drain, it builds up in the liver and damages the liver.

“She had an operation to prolong the (need for a) transplant, depending on the damage that had already been done,” Ms Scott said.

“In January, the transplant team was talking about putting her on the waiting list at the end of February. That same day, after blood tests that were bad, we didn’t leave hospital until her transplant 20 days later.”

Ms Scott described the moment she was told of Riley’s illness as the worst moment of her life, but the moment they were told Riley had been given a second chance was bittersweet.

I was so happy for Riley, but I felt sadness for that family who had lost a loved one.

“I am forever grateful for that person and that family for them donating organs. I don’t know if he or she was a registered organ donor, or if the family made that decision, but I thank all of them.

“Their decision saved Riley’s life.”

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AFTER YEARS OF BATTLING, KATE WAS GIVEN THE GIFT OF LIFE

KATE Phillips has just two words to say to a person she will never meet, but feels so connected to – “thank you”. “I wish I could just give them a big hug.”

Having suffered most of her life with congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension, an organ donor gave the now 31-year-old from Sherwood a life she never thought possible – being able to walk and talk at the same time without losing breath, lying flat in bed, and now competing in triathlons.

“Ever since I was 13, they talked about transplant because of the damage to my heart. It wasn’t until I was about 18 that they started talking about heart and double-lung transplant.”

In her 20s, a series of health scares made transplant the only option. At 23, she was doing a regular six-minute walk test at The Prince Charles Hospital.

“They say it’s the safest way to test your pulmonary function.”

“There’s 30m measured out, and you walk up and back for six minutes with your physio while your heart is being monitored.

“I’m extremely competitive. I was feeling great and I said I was going to do a PB (personal best).

“I did my PB and at the end of that immediately suffered cardiac arrest.

“Still to this day, it was the most horrible thing I’ve been through.”

Still to this day, it was the most horrible thing I’ve been through.

She woke up in intensive care being told she would need a transplant sooner than originally planned.

“In January 2013, I had a six-minute walk test the next day so I went for a walk around the block to prepare for the next day,’’ Kate said.

“I got home and the next thing I knew, I woke up on the bathroom floor.

“It was at that point, I knew I couldn’t put transplant off any longer.

“About a month after I had gone on to the transplant waiting list, I slipped into heart failure.

“I was put on the National Emergency Register, which is reserved for critically ill patients. It’s still not a guarantee.

“Thankfully, by some miracle, I got the call. Even though, technically, I didn’t get the call, because I was in hospital.” She received a double-lung and heart transplant in 2013.

“I was in hospital for six weeks post-transplant.

‘‘I mean, when you’re getting pretty much a brand new body, that’s not bad.”

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SELFLESS ACT GIVES DAD CHANCE TO BE THERE FOR HIS CHILDREN

DEREK Mayall was fit, active and healthy. Until one day, he wasn’t.

In late 2011, the then 38-year-old noticed a change in his fitness levels – the start of a journey that now meant his life relied on someone else’s.

“I went from playing touch footy three times a week to taking a shower and drying myself that felt like I had just run a marathon,” he said. All of this was going on while wife Kym was pregnant with their first child – Olivia, now 4.

In February 2012, he went to Holy Spirit Northside Private Hospital for tests and stayed for 10 days before he was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

PAH affects the blood vessels in the lungs and puts pressure on the heart to maintain blood flow in the lungs and the body.

“They don’t know the cause, although it can be hereditary. If it was years ago, if I went untreated, it would have been heart failure that I would have died from.”

In June 2013 – with a nine-month-old girl – his health deteriorated.

“I was admitted to hospital in November 2013 for assessment to find out if I was eligible for a transplant. Everything else (apart from my lungs) was healthy, so I was able to go ahead with that.

“It took me a week or so to come to terms with the decision and then basically, a week later I was placed on the waiting list. I was very, very lucky because I only waited six or seven weeks.

“It took a lot to mentally process what was happening ... but by that stage, I didn’t have a choice. I could have dropped dead any day.”

It took a lot to mentally process what was happening ... but by that stage, I didn’t have a choice. I could have dropped dead any day.

Physically, the now 44-year-old has recovered well. He is well aware, though, that another family is grieving the loss of someone they love.

“Someone has given me the most valuable gift that they could give.

“They’ve not only given me life, but given my daughter a father, and the chance to have a
sister, and given my wife a husband.”

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GIVEN 12 MONTHS TO LIVE, A STRANGER GAVE MICHAEL A SECOND CHANCE

HE SPENT close to 20 years dealing with a “bad liver” but at the end of 2013, Michael Craitem’s health deteriorated rapidly.

The lifelong Ascot resident suffered from primary biliary cirrhosis – an auto-immune disease that causes progressive destruction of the bile ducts – and sclerosing cholangitis – a disease causing inflammation and scars on the bile ducts, which can cause serious liver damage.

Without any cure, treatment would only last for so long. And for a man who had spent much of his life caring for his mother, he was not ready to give up his interest in horse racing and travel.

“The doctors told me a few years ago I would need a transplant eventually at some point,” he said.

“In about May-June last year the doctors started looking at a time to put me on the waiting list for a transplant.”

It was a double-edged sword as his health deteriorated, but the only option to keep him alive – a liver transplant – came closer to reality.

“The doctor said ‘if it gets worse’ – and it did get worse – ‘that they would take it from there’.”

That was last August. Earlier this year, Michael’s name was placed on the waiting list.

Nine days later, he received a phone call that changed his life.

“I got a call early on a Friday night and she said ‘Michael, you’ve been waiting for this call’,” he said.

He phoned for a taxi to Princess Alexandra Hospital and underwent surgery, and was out of hospital 12 days later.

“If I didn’t get the transplant I would be dead within 12 months,” he said.

All I can say to my donor and their family is ‘thank you’. And to the doctors as well. They’ve all saved my life.

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HOW CAN I SAY ‘THANK YOU’ FOR SUCH A GIFT?

NATALIE Hazlewood was just 18 years old when faced with the realisation that her only chance of survival relied on a liver transplant.

This was two years ago.

Diagnosed with Chrohn’s disease in 2010 at the age of 12, and two months later, diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis — the idea of transplant was not foreign to the Morningside resident, now aged 20.

“Over the years, and infection after infection, led to cirrhosis of the liver,” she said.

“When I was first diagnosed, the doctor I was seeing at the time said in nine to 12 years with the disease I had, I would probably need a liver transplant.

“We just didn’t think it would only be five years later that I would need it, but we definitely knew it would be needed.

“It was definitely way earlier than we were expecting, though.”

Natalie was placed on the transplant waiting list in early 2015. Five months later, she was informed the perfect liver was available.

“I was very lucky,” the 20-year-old said.

“I was the only option for this certain liver; there were no other options — it was just me.

“I didn’t actually get the call. I was in hospital for one of those infections (that were recurring for a couple of years).

“I did get a phone call once (before the transplant went ahead). I got what they call a dummy run. Mum got the phone call at 3am and we got told to come in for 7am. Come 4 o’clock that afternoon I was being told that the liver wasn’t suitable for me and I could go home.

“That was probably a bit of a relief, because I don’t think we were quite ready for it.”

With wisdom beyond her years, the university student said even at a young age, she knew of the sacrifice someone else would need to make to save her life – the decision of a person to be an organ donor and/or the decision of their family. “

“Thank you is never enough, but in every way it is all you can say. There’s really not much more than thank you,” she said.

“I know for a fact that if I didn’t have my transplant, I wouldn’t be able to be living my life the way I am right now.”

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GEOFF HAD A BIG HEART, BUT SAYS THOSE WHO DONATE ORGANS HAVE THE BIGGEST HEART OF ALL

GEOFF Fletcher was doing jury duty seven years ago when he got the flu and never recovered.

Little did he know at the time that his flu would turn out to be much more – a life-threatening illness that could have killed him.

“I was walking from one end of Westfield North Lakes to the other and was short of breath,” Mr Fletcher said.

He conceded he was not a fan of hospitals and searched online for what was wrong with him.

His wife, Roneen, had to be the go-between on the phone with the hospital – knowing this was now much more than a flu.

“They said take him straight to Royal Brisbane (Hospital),” Mrs Fletcher said.

“They took him in and had a look and said, ‘you’re about to have a massive heart attack or you’ve just had a massive heart attack’.

The size of a standard heart is 80ml, about the size of a fist. His heart was 780ml – the biggest heart they’ve ever seen.

Mr Fletcher did not have a heart attack, but his life was rapidly turned upside down.

“My experience with hospitals and doctors to this point was a hernia operation when I was about 20, and an arthroscopy on my knee when I was 17,” Mr Fletcher said.

“In terms of drugs, a couple of Panadol after a big night.”

After 10 days in hospital and a pacemaker and defibrillator installed, the then 38-year-old’s life returned to normal for the next six years.

In June last year, just before a planned work trip to New Zealand, Mr Fletcher was unwell and forced to go to the hospital by his “persistent and caring” wife – luckily.

She parked the car and went to meet her husband inside.

“All I could see were people everywhere. He was on the ground. His pacemaker had gone off and it took three goes for it to start. He had a cardiac arrest,” Mrs Fletcher said.

Mr Fletcher was told he would be in hospital for five days. That turned into five months – until he received a heart transplant.

“I would not be here without the doctors and the team at the hospital, or my organ donor — there’s no way of sugar-coating it,” he said.

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YOUNG BOY DREAMS OF HELPING OTHERS, JUST AS HIS ORGAN DONOR HELPED HIM

LACHY Wallis dreams of becoming a police officer – following in the footsteps of his grandfather, and helping strangers — just as he was helped by a liver transplant at the age of eight.

The 16-year-old says his future plans are not about repaying the generosity of his donor, or karma, but that his experience had opened his eyes to how one action could change someone else’s life.

Through being an organ donor, you have the chance to save someone’s life, and a part of you lives on through another person.

“I send letters to my donor family that say how sorry I am for their loss, and let them know as much as I can that I’m doing well, so they can see what their loved one has done for me.”

Born with biliary atresia – a disease of the liver and bile ducts – Lachy’s prospect of needing a transplant was always on the cards, his father, Dave, said.

“He had his first operation at 52 days old,” Mr Wallis said.

“He got over that and got through that liver damage, but there was cirrhosis of the liver, and as he grew, and as his liver grew, it put pressure on his pulmonary artery and restricted oxygen.”

It was a parent’s worst nightmare.

“He started to turn blue ... and was on oxygen 24 hours a day.

“We were told we would have a couple of years between identifying the issue and him becoming seriously ill and needing a transplant. But the restricted oxygen was suffocating him.”

The situation – already serious – became even more dire.

He likely wouldn’t have survived much longer. We were incredibly lucky a liver became available when it did.

Not remembering much of the detail, Lachy, in Year 11 at Iona College, said he now realised how close he came to dying on the waiting list. That thought – which is scary for any young person – is motivation for his “give anything a crack attitude”.

“I think it’s really important to discuss organ donation with your family and friends. I don’t have anything against anyone who doesn’t want to donate their organs, but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t. You have the chance to do something really good.”

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MARTIN’S DONOR GAVE HIM PRECIOUS GIFT TO BE THERE FOR HIS FOUR DAUGHTERS

My only hope is that for that family, it is a small consolation that one or a couple of good things have come from their tragedy.

MARTIN Ruffle spent just shy of six months on dialysis — a process that performs the function of kidneys but outside of the body.

Diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease 10 years ago, the Scarborough father knew there was no cure for his illness. The only option for him long-term was a kidney transplant.

“Dialysis is only a stopgap,” he said. Before dialysis, the disease was relatively easy to manage.

“It was just a matter of monitoring blood pressure and seeing a specialist once or twice a year.”

“They (doctors) monitor your kidney function as it progressively gets worse. When it reaches a certain point that is considered dangerous, you then go on dialysis.”

The self-employed builder was placed on the transplant waiting list last year. At the same time he started dialysis at Wesley Hospital.

“I was told it would probably be two or 2½ years because I had a common blood type, it kind of works against you.

“I was just extremely lucky that a kidney became available ... and it was a really good match.”

The 53-year-old was expecting to wait at least another year, and probably another two or more to receive that call.

“It was very much out of the blue,” he said of receiving the transplant call in the early hours of the morning earlier this year. “My partner, Robyn Fidler, had just been to the Princess Alexandra Hospital for two days of tests to see if she could donate. That finished on the Wednesday.

“The call came late one Thursday night, actually early Friday morning.”

Months on from surgery, he is grateful for the opportunity to be around for his four daughters — aged 18 and 12, and 16-year-old twins.

“But I don’t want to celebrate my good fortune at the expense of someone’s misfortune,” he said.

“My only hope is that for that family, it is a small consolation that one or a couple of good things have come from their tragedy.”

HAVE YOU REGISTERED AS AN ORGAN DONOR? IT IS NO LONGER ON YOUR DRIVER LICENCE. YOU CAN REGISTER HERE.