Ambassadors

In December 2006, Tor collapsed at work and hospitalised on oxygen and given intravenous drugs to stabilise her condition. Her lung function dropped to 23% and failed to improve, despite intensive treatment. It was then she started using oxygen 24 hours a day, and a wheelchair to get out of the house.

Tor was assessed for Transplant in 2007 and placed on the active waiting list on the 9th July that year. She has now been waiting over 4 years and has had eight false alarms during this time.

Despite now being very ill, Tor continues to fight hard to raise awareness about organ donation. She has been featured in National and regional newspapers, TV, and radio.  Tor keeps a blog and uses twitter to share her story, gaining support from celebrities such as Dragon’s Den’s Duncan Bannatyne.

20-year-old Kerry lives in Kesgrave, Ipswich. She was born with Cystic Fibrosis and diagnosed at 4 months old following a heel prick test.

Kerry was quite well as a child, but had her first chest infection when she was 13, which required intravenous antibiotics (IVs) and a hospital admission. After this, she began requiring IVs every three months, to keep her lungs functioning as well as possible. At the age of 18, Kerry’s health took a sharp decline and her lung function which had previously been quite stable at around 50% of predicted, dropped to approximately 25%. Kerry fought to push it up to 30% again but it has continued to decline.

The word “Transplant” was first mentioned to Kerry in October 2010; her lung function was 23% after 2 weeks of IV's and she was still feeling very poorly. Kerry was requiring more frequent and lengthy hospital stays, and her weight had dropped to 32kg. She was told that whilst she needed to be assessed for a transplant, she would first need to gain weight in order to be accepted onto the waiting list.

Kerry’s lung function now hovers around 20%. Consequently she struggles with daily tasks, finding the smallest thing makes her breathless. Having worked very hard and gained a significant amount of weight, she is being assessed for a double lung transplant in November 2011, and she is hoping to join the waiting list as soon as possible.

Kerry has been involved in fundraising since she was a child. She has participated in events such as sponsored walks and discos, and most recently, cheering her friends and family on as they did a sponsored Abseil for the CF Trust. Kerry was the face of the Evening Star Charity Press Ball which took place in June this year and raised around £15,000 which was split between 3 different charities.

Kerry started keeping a blog in April 2011, with the aim of raising as much awareness for organ donation and CF as possible, by speaking out about her personal experiences. Kerry has had over 35,000 views since then and says many people have told her they signed up to be a donorafter reading her blog.

Kerry recently featured in our poster campaign, which has been incredibly successful. The I’d Give You One poster campaign featuring Kerry premiered at the Glasgow Fresher’s fair on the 29th and 30th September. Two large banners were prominently displayed and consequently dozens of fresher’s students came over to the stand to find out more.

The launch of the campaign saw a flurry of media coverage including The Daily Mail Online, BBC Look East, ITV Anglia tonight and the East Anglican Daily Times. The media coverage exposed organ donation to millions of people across the UK, heightening awareness of the chronic shortage of organ donors and the need for more people to sign up.

We are delighted to have Kerry as a LLTGL Ambassador and are very proud of all the hard work she’s already put in to raising awareness and saving lives.