Point Cook woman Camille Condon says a double lung transplant helped to give her a new life.
Ms Condon developed bronchiectasis due to a primary immune deficiency when she was in her 30s.
“I was on oxygen for two years before the transplant,” she said.
Four months after the transplant, she returned to work part-time, eight months after the transplant she was back working full-time.
Ms Condon, now 43, said it was important for people to consider becoming organ donors “because one day it might be you or a family member who might need an organ”.
On Sunday, October 15, Ms Condon will help to raise awareness about organ donations when she takes part in her fifth consecutive Medibank Melbourne Marathon Festival.
She will be part of a team aiming to raise $5000 for the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust (Victoria), which is based at the Alfred Hospital. Ms Condon said she joined the trust soon after her transplant to connect with people who had been through similar experiences.
She is now vice-president of the charity, which helps to provide and fund accommodation for heart and lung transplant recipients, and their carers, from country Victoria and interstate.
Ms Condon said she and her teammates would promote awareness of organ and tissue donation during the Melbourne Marathon by wearing DonateLife logos on their T-shirts.
“Thanks to my transplant, I can do anything anyone else can – I just can’t run,” she said.
See donatelife.gov.au or melbournemarathon.com.au for details.
