Transplant patient switches on hospital Christmas lights
Published on 28/11/2023
Patients, visitors and staff came together for the switch-on of the Christmas tree lights at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).
Patient Andy Bright, who had the duty to flick the switch, had been invited by QEHB Charity to be our guest of honour.
Andy had been living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic lung disease characterised by a progressive and irreversible decline in lung function, until he received a life-changing double lung transplant at QEHB in 2018.
Speaking of the time before his transplant, Andy said: “2018 was a mixed year. It started badly and then got worse. By August, one of my lung function tests was only just registering on the machines. Any lower and it couldn’t be measured.
“I prepared myself for whatever fate had in store. I was still trying to live a ‘normal life’, to provide for my family but still take joy from them and from daily encounters. I’d sit and just watch them smile or laugh and I’d savour life.”
Andy’s quality of life was getting progressively worse. Until, in his words: ‘The miracle happened.‘ Andy received his new lungs, and he immediately started to feel better. It was a tough road full of ‘speed bumps’, as Andy calls them, but it was full of amazing moments, such as enjoying Christmas with his family, having thought that 2018 would probably be his last Christmas.
Now, Andy is looking forward to many more Christmases in the future, and plans to: ‘enjoy every day, make more plans, get fitter, and participate in family life!‘
At the switch-on, Andy praised QEHB colleagues for their ‘wonderful care’ and left us with an important message.
Andy said: "idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis kills more people Patient shines light on organ donation than other awful conditions like leukaemia each year, and to save more lives, we need more people to register for organ donation. I will help to raise the awareness of this condition and hopefully effect change in the research and the lives affected by this disease."
Next year, Andy will be 60 and will see more grandchildren join his family and ride his motorcycle from John O'Groats to Land's End, raising awareness of organ donation and pulmonary fibrosis. None of this would have been possible without his donor who he calls his 'unknown saviour'.
Earlier this year, QEHB Charity and A Edmonds & Co Ltd announced the ‘Edmonds Transplant Centre’, which will be based at QEHB.
It aims to become a national centre of excellence for organ transplantation, bringing together all aspects of specialist transplant care for patients, please visit the charity website:
