Gift of life that's still giving 40 years on

Gift of life that's still giving 40 years on
Health reporter Jordanna Schriever
From: The Advertiser June 29, 2011 11:00pm

FORTY years ago, Diane Schulze barely made it through her wedding day without collapsing.

In 1971, aged 20, her kidneys refluxed and she suffered renal failure.

"I was really ill, I spent the day before I got married in bed," she said.

"On my wedding day I had a back ache and all I wanted to do was sit down - I wasn't sure if I could walk down the aisle."

Her Melbourne honeymoon lasted just five days and in the following months her weight dropped to 37kg.

She spent nine weeks on a dialysis machine because her kidneys had to be removed. An anonymous donor saved her life, when she received a kidney in September 1971.

Now, 40 years later, she is one of Australia's longest surviving transplant patients. "Before I had my transplant my potassium levels went up and they didn't think I would make it through the night," she said.

"Having a transplant is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Every day, she thanks the anonymous donor whose kidney has allowed her to marry her husband Graeme Schulze, work, travel and have a family - including granddaughter Samantha.

"I'm living proof of what a transplant can do - it changes your life. I look at it as the gift of life."

Today, to raise awareness about organ donation, she will walk about 5km around Lake Burley Griffin with her current transplant doctor, Rob Carroll, who at 36, is younger than her donor kidney.

To get in shape, she has been taking regular walks and using her exercise bike.

The walk is part of the first Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand fun run in Canberra, which Prime Minister Julia Gillard's partner Tim Mathieson will start.

Dr Carroll said Mrs Schulze was an example of the long-lasting benefits organ donation could provide.

"Organ donation can save lives and, in Diane's case, it can keep a recipient going strong for 40 or more years," he said.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/gift-of-life-thats-still-giving-40-years-on/story-e6frea6u-1226084488409