Student with four transplants now plans global tripJun 19 2007
Western Mail
A MEDICAL student who became the first person in Britain to have four life-saving transplants has recovered enough to plan a trip around the world with her boyfriend.
Over the past 12 years, Allison John, 29, has received a liver, kidney, lungs and a heart.
Originally from Fishguard but now living in Cardiff, Miss John is leaving for China with her boyfriend Nathan Angell next month. She is also planning a trip to New Zealand to meet his parents.
“The doctors had written me off,” she said.
“But I’m still here. I feel very lucky to have had so many chances at life.”
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Her most recent transplant came when her father, David, donated his kidney to her when she suffered renal failure.
Her problems date back to her birth when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
She had her first transplant when she was just 14 – after a 16- month wait for a suitable liver during which doctors gave her three days to live.
Miss John had her transplant in September 1995 at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
She said, “It was just so lucky that another liver came up in time. Otherwise I wouldn’t have made it.”
After battling back to health, Miss John began a degree in neuroscience at Cardiff University, but six months in she fell ill with lung failure.
This time a match was found immediately, but doctors decided it was better to replace both her heart and lungs.
The March 1997 operation was a success, and Miss John’s original healthy heart was given to man who had suffered several heart attacks.
But her fourth transplant came as an indirect result of her first three when the medication she was taking to stop rejection of her transplanted organs caused kidney damage, and in April 2005 she was diagnosed with renal failure.
Tests showed her father was a perfect match and he had no hesitation in stepping in to help. “It was the greatest gift of all he could ever have given me,” she said.
After her travels she intends to finish a second medical course at university, saying that her experiences have only renewed her desire to qualify as a doctor.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/health/tm_headline=student-with-four-transplants-now-plans-global-trip&method=full&objectid=19319334&siteid=50082-name_page.html
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