Amy Baker, Life on the waiting list

25-year-old Amy Baker has just one wish...to be alive to see her 2-year-old daughter Bella go to school. In order to do that, Amy, who has Cystic Fibrosis, desperately needs a double lung transplant.

Amy was diagnosed with CF at birth, and so grew up accustomed to the daily regime of antibiotics, physiotherapy, tablets and nebulisers.  She had a relatively normal childhood, however at the age of 10 Amy contracted pneumonia which damaged her lungs irreparably. In 2009, Amy was told her lungs were damaged to such an extent that she needed a double lung transplant in order to survive.

She has been on the waiting list now for 15 months and says “now that I have been waiting over a year I have been starting to wonder if it’s actually going to happen. I have had one false alarm within this time; does that mean I could be waiting another year for another call? If I do have to wait another year, will I manage to wait that long?”

Amy’s lungs are now so fragile that she requires oxygen 24 hours a day, and has been on intravenous antibiotics to try to ward off infection for the past 22 months. Amy is now on constant pain medication and requires a carer to help her around the house, as she finds simple daily tasks such as getting dressed exhausting.

When asked what a transplant would mean to her, Amy says “A lot of people write lists of things they would like to accomplish, but for me the main event is that I want to see is my daughter grow up. I want to be there when she has her first day at school, take her shopping for her first uniform, iron and lay it out for her. I want to carry on seeing her doing things for the first time. Like her first sports day, school play, riding a bike, or maybe the first time she's able to make me a cup of tea! I hate the thought of not being there for her.”