Giving the Gift of Life

14 October 2005
By Kate Buchanan

Lisa Wishart-Wyeth has no face to recall, no name to pay tribute to. But the teenage girl that fills her thoughts bestowed the Otatara woman with the ultimate gift – a set of healthy lungs that saved her life.

“Sometimes at night when I can’t sleep, I lie there and can feel the rise and fall of my lungs and I think about her and wonder what she was like,” Lisa Wishart-Wyeth said.

Mrs Wishart-Wyeth is one of just nine New Zealanders to undergo a lung transplant operation last year.

“It’s my duty now to protect these lungs, not only for myself but for her and her wishes,” she said.

Mrs Wishart-Wyeth, 38, was diagnosed 11 years ago with the rare and fatal lung disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM. 

> Read more of this Southland Times article here.