Double-lung transplant recipient speaks at Rotary

Posted by Paul Ferri 
on Aug 28, 2013
 

Ann McGuireAnn McGuire of The Toronto Lung Transplant Civitan Club visited our club and gave a highly informative lecture on her experiences as a double-lung transplant recipient. She took us through the entire history of experiences from the day she was first diagnosed with COPD up to her transplant operation and recovery. She continues to enjoy a very full life and volunteers as a speaker on the topic of organ donation.


Photo: Ann receiving an appreciation certificate from President Rod Verduyn.

Speech Overview: Ann McGuire’s life began anew on September 20th, 2007. On that miraculous day, her Breath Day, Ann’s life changed. She received her gift of life – a double lung transplant.

 
The gratitude Ann felt on Sept. 20th 2007 helped her “to unlock the fullness of life”. And as Melody Beattie says in her book, Gratitude: Affirming the Good Things in Life, “it turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion to clarity. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow”. Ann’s even grateful (in hindsight) that she experienced the frightening journey from August 1997, when she was diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) with Emphysema, even though she wasn’t a smoker,, to her transplant in 2007. Prior to that time, she took many things for granted. When Ann was diagnosed with COPD, she was living a busy, happy life, married, with two children (a daughter and a son who were 11 and 14 at the time), teaching English, as well as being the Department Head of English at Loretto Abbey (which she did until June 2006).

Ann misses teaching, (she is immune-suppressed from the anti-rejection meds and germs can be rampant in schools) but she doesn’t have much spare time because of her involvement in different transplant causes. She produces the Hope Newsletter for the Lung Transplant community, and is Secretary for The Toronto Lung Transplant Civitan Club, a charity that raises funds to provide financial assistance for lung patients when they move to Toronto to be on the waiting list. In addition, Ann co-ordinates the annual Craft & Bake Sale and Raffle at the Toronto General Hospital (TGH), as well as the Lung Transplant Christmas Party. Funds raised from the Craft & Bake Sale and Raffle go directly to help lung transplant patients when they are at the hospital, such as purchasing equipment for The Treadmill Room & the PFT lab, and other equipment for the Lung Transplant Program at TGH. Ann also helps to raise organ donation awareness by going in to speak to some of the high schools in the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB).

Having been given this second chance has taught Ann to embrace all sides of life. She tries to live by Dr. Abbey’s (of TGH) words: “To live life with ease”, and couldn’t be happier living her simple life.