Organ donors gave me new life

Oct 21 2008 by Emma Davison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A FORMER Huddersfield lifeguard who has been given a second chance at life is urging people to become organ donors.

Louise Taylor suffers from cystic fibrosis and became so ill she feared she would not live to see her 30th birthday.

But Louise, from Flockton, had a double lung transplant and it has totally transformed her life.

Now she has urged other people to agree to donate organs to give other people the same chance. She wants them to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Louise was born with cystic fibrosis – the country’s most commonly inherited life-threatening disease – but was still fit enough to be a lifeguard at Huddersfield Sports Centre, run her own fashion business and travel the world.

Yet earlier this year the 29-year-old feared she would not make her 30th birthday when the disease caused such massive damage to her lungs that life became a bigger battle each day.

Louise spent most of her time indoors and became almost totally reliant on her husband, Ian.

She could barely walk upstairs, bathing herself was impossible and she needed portable oxygen cylinders and a wheelchair on the rare occasions she left home.