photography provided by Elisabeth Levesque Mumford
HELLO!
My name is Helene Campbell, but you probably already knew that. Thanks so much for checking my website out! This is my story. I won't go into all the details, but hopefully you get the gist.
I was diagnosed with asthma when I was a pretty young thing, and always blamed my shortness of breath on my 'respiratory condition'.
In the summer of 2011, I spoke to my family doctor about how I had been feeling more and more faint on exertion. She sent me for a chest x ray, and shortly after I was sent to emerge.
It took the physicians a few months to find what was causing the shortness of breath. In October 2011, I was told that I had advanced idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It is a fatal lung disease that causes a progressive decline in lung function, due to scarring.
My respirologist told me the only treatment option I had was to be placed on a transplant list, and wait for a double lung transplant.
In order to be placed on the wait list, you must live in a 2 hour radius of the transplant center. Ottawa does not have a hospital that preforms lung transplants, so I moved to Toronto in January, 2012 to be placed on the transplant wait list.
GOOD FRIDAY
On April 6th, 2012 I underwent a successful double lung transplant.
To my donor, and to their family; no words can express how grateful I am for the precious gift you gave me. Thank you for allowing me to have a second chance and for giving me this 'second wind'.
Hélène