First the Transplant Then the Medals

Lesley Johnstone owes her life to a stranger.

Before her double lung transplant, she was on oxygen around the clock and struggled to get up her stairs.

Four years on, the Stokes Valley woman has just returned from the Australian Transplant Games, where she competed in petanque, tenpin bowling, free ball throwing, table-tennis and eight-ball pool, winning two medals, a silver and bronze.

"After the transplant I sent a letter to my donor's family to thank them, and I told them one of my aims was to get back into sport, so I'm really happy to have done this."

New Zealand was represented by a team of seven among the 400 competitors at the Perth games last month.

Between them, they had received three hearts, one kidney, one liver, bone marrow and two lungs. They brought home 28 medals.

Mrs Johnstone caught pneumonia in 1996 and was diagnosed with emphysema - a degenerative lung disease usually caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including cigarette smoke. She was 47. In 2000, she collapsed at a snooker competition in Hastings and had to be resuscitated.

Doctors said she needed a lung transplant, but it was four years before she reached the top of the waiting list.

"I was one of the lucky ones - there were only 12 transplant operations that year."

It has been a tough recovery, battling two bouts of rejection (when the body's immune system tries to kill the new organ), three serious infections, a cracked vertebrae and a broken leg because of brittle bones from years on steroids.

But Mrs Johnstone, who had been a competitive shooter and snooker player, never lost sight of her goal to resume an active life. She now hopes to go to the World Transplant Games on the Gold Coast next year.

The games are about encouraging transplant recipients to get into sport, but its also about raising awareness of organ donation," she says.

It really is the gift of life, and there are 400 New Zealanders on the waiting list at the moment."

By Ruth Hill, The Dominion Post