- Brave transplant patients pose for glamorous fundraising calendar shoot
- Includes ‘selfies’ showing their condition as they waited for operations
- Initiative designed to show how lives have been transformed by transplants
- Some have recovered from double lung transplants to lead active lifestyles
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Brave young transplant patients have glammed up for a glitzy calendar shoot to show how their lives have been transformed by new organs.
Pre-operation ‘selfies’ of the 13 patients show some of them on the verge of death, waiting desperately for new lungs.
But the ‘Transplant Troopers’, who have all suffered lives of near continuous treatment, with collapsed lungs and near death experiences, look dazzling in the calendar which has been unveiled to coincide with National Transplant Week.
Flying high: Kirstie Tancock was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, but she is back in the gym showing off her healthy form, dressed in a corset and feathers performing an aerial loop
Before: Kirstie Tancock, pictured left and right ahead of her operation, is one of only a handful of people to have had a second double lung transplant and has fought back from the brink of death
They hope
the initiative, in aid of organ donation awareness charity Live Life
Then Give Life, will deliver a powerful message on behalf of those
waiting desperately for organs.
The group, from across the UK, met online because meeting in person was difficult due to infection risk.
They include Kirstie Tancock, from Honiton in Devon, who is one of only a handful in the world to have had a second double lung transplant.
Kirstie, Miss September in the calendar, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, but she has fought back from the brink of death after having the procedures.
The 24-year-old is back in the gym and shows off her healthy form in the calendar, dressed in a corset and feathers as she performs an aerial loop.
Miss March: Louise Davidson, 22, poses for a glamorous photo having recovered from a double lung transplant
Her fit and healthy appearance in the photo shoot was in contrast to the days when Louise Davidson was waiting for her double lung transplant
‘It’s miraculous that lungs could be found in time. I think there must be someone looking out for me. There has to be a purpose to my life, a reason for me to be here,’ she said.
‘I know I am going to die of chronic rejection and we’ll never be able to have children but my husband always says “let’s look on the bright side – you might be hit by a bus tomorrowâ€.
‘People die in sudden and traumatic circumstances – it’s getting people to face that question and talk about organ donation with their family. We have to make people want to listen.’
Justine
Laymond, 41, from Broomfield, in Essex, suffers from the world’s rarest
lung disease – lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) which destroyed her right
lung and left her with only 30 per cent function in her left.
Glamorous: Justine Laymond appeared in the calendar, left, having had a transplant for a rare disease that destroyed her right lung. She is pictured right before undergoing her double lung transplant
After 15 lung collapses she had come to the end and spent three weeks in a coma and a further two months on life support.
Finally in 2006, after three false alarms and 16 months of waiting, a successful double lung transplant saved her life.
She has since competed in the UK, European and World Transplant Games and made history as the first double lung transplantee to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
‘I’m determined to remain positive and live my life fully,’ said Justine, who dressed in a khaki mini dress for the calendar, perched on first aid boxes, sporting a bright pink wig for Miss February.
‘Every day I’m so grateful to wake up still breathing. I live each day as though it is my last. I couldn’t have guessed I’d be sitting here today with a pair of man’s lungs in me.
Happier times: Having undergone the transplant, Bernice Perry, 23, looked dazzling as she posed for the glitzy charity calendar
Miss January Bernice Perry, 23, took this ‘selfie’ before her double lung transplant
‘It really can happen to anyone. I hope the calendar encourages everyone to sign up.’
Bernice Perry, 23, from Haverhill, in Suffolk, features as a 1920’s flapper girl, in a village teashop, with the caption: ‘The best gift in life is a second chance’ for Miss January.
She was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of five and waited 15 months, aged 21, for a life-saving double lung transplant.
She said: ‘I just existed for all those years, now I’m finally living.’
Alexandra Sullivan, 29, a beauty therapist from Chelmsford, Essex, lounges in a bubble bath, as Miss August.
Miss August, Alexandra Sullivan, 29, relaxes in a bath for the calendar – a far cry from when she was lying in a hospital bed having her first liver transplant as an eight-year-old
Alexandra Sullivan is pictured before one of her transplants – in sharp contrast to the glamorous calendar photo shoot
She had her first liver transplant aged just eight-years-old, after being diagnosed with liver disease as a two-year-old – and a second life-saving transplant four years later, in 1998.
She married her best friend Gary Sullivan, 32, a salesman for BT and they now have a little boy Albie, aged three, who she describes as her ‘miracle boy’.
She has been told she won’t be able to have any more children, as she had some rejection during her pregnancy but she says she is healthy and even ran the London marathon in April, in six hours 12 minutes.
She said: ‘You think you’re invincible when you’re younger, it never crossed my mind I wouldn’t be here one day.
Fit and healthy:
Hannah Kelleher, right, who suffers from restrictive cardiomyopathy and has had a heart transplant. She met cystic fibrosis sufferer Charlotte Davies, left, when they were both hospital patients
Charlotte Davies, who was born with cystic fibrosis, took this picture before undergoing a double lung transplant
‘That’s so much more important now I’ve got Albie. I can’t control my liver failing but I can at least try to make sure there’s organs waiting for me should I need them and for anyone else.
‘I have lost friends along the way – it seems crazy people are dying when we’ve got the skills there to keep them alive, we just haven’t got the organs. I want a fridge-freezer full of livers waiting for me when I need them.’
Victoria Glen, 31, from Glasgow, models Miss October – a ghostly apparition in a graveyard and a reminder of the grim fate that is in store without organ donation.
Transplantee Victoria Glen, Miss October, was pictured in the calendar as a ghostly apparition in a graveyard to serve as a reminder of the grim fate that is in store for patients without organ donation
Victoria Glen, pictured pre-transplant, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis aged just six months. Her health deteriorated in her twenties and she waited 19 months – with 10 false alarms – before new lungs became available in May 2010
She was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis aged six months old, after her mum told the doctor her baby tasted of ready salted crisps – the so-called ‘sweat-test’.
Her health deteriorated in her twenties and she waited 19 months – with 10 false alarms – before new lungs became available in May 2010.
‘I had lost all hope, but happily, I’m here today living a healthier life, pursuing my dreams,’ she said.
She has completed a BA in Community Arts from Strathclyde University and is hoping to establish a career in events planning and fundraising.
Rachel Prosser, 28, an accounts coordinator from Lichfield, who poses as Miss May, in floral vintage, waited eight months for a single lung transplant in 2012.
Rachel Prosser, 28, is fit and well after her single-lung transplant in 2012. She waited eight months for the operation
Rachel Prosser took this picture before her lung transplant, at which point she was on 24-hour oxygen and could barely walk up the stairs
By that time, she was on 24-hour oxygen and could barely walk up the stairs. Now she is fit and well and looking for Mr Right.
Sadly the calendar will come too late for Anders Gibson, 35, who posed as Sergeant Pepper for the charity stunt as Mr July.
He died just over six weeks ago with his family around him, in Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, after a year-long wait for suitable lungs ended in a failed transplant.
His dad Hervey Gibson, 65, an economist, said: ‘Unfortunately, in the end, Anders’ new lungs didn’t kick in. We were watching the English cup final – he was correcting me on my football tactics – and he gradually slipped away.
Anders Gibson, 35, who posed as Sergeant Pepper for the charity stunt as Mr July. He died just over six weeks ago with his family around him, in Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital
Anders Gibson, pictured before his operation, had waited a year for suitable lungs, but the wait ended in tragedy with a failed transplant
‘He was excited about the calendar and well aware of the importance of publicity and campaigning; he wanted opt-out rather than opt-in organ donation.’
Mr Gibson had lived with cystic fibrosis since he was three months old and despite continuous treatment, gained an MSc in Global Health from Glasgow University.
He was also known for stand-up comedy routines and charity work in aid of organ donation.
National Transplant Week runs until July 13. There are currently 6,969 people waiting in desperate hope of a transplant, according to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
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