Once there was a young woman called Jo. She was beautiful, feisty and independent. The trouble was that she was stuck in an ill body that meant she couldn’t do the things she loved and instead felt isolated and an annoyance to her parents that had to help care for her.Jo’s body was so ill that she needed a lung transplant, however she was underweight and needed to put a lot of weight on. It was difficult and sometimes she thought she would never put the weight on, she felt hopeless at times and had to remind herself of the bright future she could have if she got a new pair of lungs from a kind donor and their family. She would forever be grateful to them because in their time of sadness they would have saved Jo’s life.
Jo finally put the weight on after months of struggling and she was accepted on the list. All she had to do was wait and try to keep positive by thinking of the things she would be able to do free of her oxygen, aches and pains and wheelchair.
She finally got the call however the lungs were not suitable for transplant. This happened a few times. Each time Jo thought ‘this is it, I’m going to have a life’ and every time the lungs were not suitable her heart sank just abit more but she stayed determined at all times.
Eventually after waiting for over a year a pair of lungs were suitable and transplanted into her.
6 weeks later she was home, ready for this new life, quite scared because of all the things she would be able to do that she had never done before but also excited that death and illness would not be on her mind everyday, just the everyday worries like other people!
After a few months she decided to move out and live on her own, something she had never expected to be able to do. It was a challenge as she had always been looked after but it felt great. She couldn’t believe how much energy she had, so much to do and so much time now she had her new lungs!
She decided to start a course at her local college, to make new friends and finally get that education she never got because she was too ill to attend school full time. She met a guy on her course and for the first time fell in love, something she had never had the energy for before plus it’s hard to meet someone when you are at home or in hospital all the time.
Jo relished her new life, she didn’t take anything for granted and wrote to the donor family to thank them for the gift of life they had given her. She felt free, independent in mind and body for a change and purpose to her existence.
This story is the future I would have chosen for Jo. Sadly it will never happen because Jo passed away yesterday morning at 5.30am. She never got her transplant, she was on the transplant list a few months after gaining the weight and will never have the life she dreamt of. I feel useless, there was nothing I could do, I couldn’t even go down and visit her to alleviate some of her loneliness.
Jo I am so sorry you never got the life you deserved.
I am donating the money I usually spend on Christmas cards in memory of Jo this year. Please consider making a donation however small to help see off CF, and if you are not a registered organ donor then please, please register!
.JPG)
10 comments:
I loved this Gem :-)
Really clever way of writing about Jo, made a nice change from mine and many other peoples blogs :-D
Thank you for coming into chat last night, and thank you more so for writing that !
Hope ur IV's are going ok XxX
that made me cry again, that was the life jo should have got
x
I didn't know about her, but I was sad to hear it. I wish your story had been hers, too. Let's keep getting the word out about organ donation!
This pulled at my heart strings - Jo would have been so proud of your thoughts and words u wrote and have about her. Stay posative gemma, negatives are useless, love u lots xxxx
The words of a true friend, if only she was still here to carry on fighting.
K x
That's really good Gemma, really moving.
x x x
So well written Gem, it's so sad to imagine what could have been will never be now.
Rachy x
That's beautiful what you wrote. I wish you did meet Jo, her life was a struggle. I grew up with her but over the last year she pushed her friends away. we went to school together but knew each other since we was toddlers, she left school early because of her CF. I wish that was the life Jo had exactly how you described. We never got to say goodbye to Jo but we always followed her blogs. She might not have felt like she had anything in common with us anymore - or couldn't do or feel up to doing the things we did but to be in her life we had to follow her blogs.
When she was 14 she was in hospital and so poorly we had to help feed her. We stood next to her when the nurses was what looked like banging on her back. We didn't care that she had CF but we didn't know really how isolated she really felt with it. There is so much I would change but I guess if I don't know CF or have CF then I'll never understand. There's so much of Jo that you would have loved...and so many funny stories. Over this last year it took over her life & she didn't let us in to be there. But she did have all you people who she wrote to and spoke too. I know you couldn't meet her, but you would have laughed so much with her.
For Jo and all of you I'll always put my name down as a donor when I pass because I realise now how much of a life I get to have that others couldn't. R.I.P Jo! x x
That's what I wanted for Jo, just seemed so sudden. RIP
xxx
Really sad!
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