Hélène Campbell has a name for her new lungs: Gratitude.
“Which is ‘attitude’ with a ‘Grr,’” she said, in her first public appearance, during which she danced, held her mother’s hand and showed shyness is no issue.
The 21-year-old Ottawa woman is a phenomenon — trending on Twitter Thursday afternoon after her hour-long news conference to a media throng, enthralled with every word.
“Waiting on the transplant list is one of the hardest things I have ever been through,” she said. “I am fortunate enough that those lungs were there in time for me. But there are people who wait up to two years or some people don’t even get that gift.”
Continuing her awareness campaign and asking Ontarians to register at beadonor.ca for organ and tissue donation will continue to be her priorities, she said, along with going to school.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, presented Campbell with the Diamond Jubilee Medal in “recognition of your tremendous work raising awareness of the importance of organ donations and obviously your personal courage in all of that,” said Harper, who visited Campbell’s Toronto apartment.
“You’ve been a great inspiration to many, many Canadians and people have seen you worldwide and you should feel very good about that.”
Campbell — who suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative disease of the lungs — vowed Thursday to honour the life-saving gift of new lungs that came April 6 just in time, after her health plunged into a scary state.
Read more - VIDEO: http://www.thestar.com/living/health/article/1183421--helene-campbell-to-make-first-public-appearance-today
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
No comments:
Post a Comment