Today’s short blog could really be a book. Maybe someone will write that later, there’s plenty of material about this eleven year old miracle who sent us today’s words to think about.
Madiee, and her amazing mum, came to Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 2013 for a bowel transplant. Most of her first four years of life had already been spent in hospital. There was another year and a half inside for tests, assessments and hospitalised care during that wait on the transplant list until the call came. Even then it wasn’t all done as Madiee developed Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD), a cancer that sometimes follows a solid organ transplant.
The treatment – and all the love – worked. There’s a whole world in these words from Madiee:
“When I received my transplant my donor gave to me…a life out of hospital.”
This year Madiee laughed and danced her way through her eleventh birthday. Now she’s out and about, as much as many of us can be. Maybe someday your paths will cross (come to the Transplant Games sometime and enjoy watching her participate with a thousand others). But watch out – she’ll make you smile and capture your heart. And that wouldn’t be possible if someone, somewhere, hadn’t had that conversation…