‘Am I ready to face death? Am I ready for a transplant? And will I still be me if I have somebody else’s organs inside me?’
Diana Sanders lived her life to the limits – but there were some risks she would never take. That’s why she always kept to the speed limit … practised safe sex … and wore wellington boots when changing a light-bulb.
So why was she about to undergo the equivalent of a ‘controlled road-traffic accident’ and take the greatest risk of her life – a heart and lung transplant? And who would she be – assuming she survived – at the end of it?

The transplant consultant told me the survival statistics. “Around 75 to 90 per cent chance of surviving two years after the operation. The rate steadily falls after that.” About half of those who have a transplant can expect to be alive after five years. Not brilliant, but what was my alternative?
‘And without the transplant?’ I asked Dr McNeil. It was to me the million dollar question. I had never really asked it before, just picked up the whispers.
‘Well, it is all downhill from here. Today is the best day of the rest of your life.’ From Will I Still Be Me? A Journey Through a Transplant by Diana Sanders

ISBN 0953 2213 8 5/978 0953 2213 8 7; 168 pp; £8.99 softback

Reviews

‘Diana Sanders has chronicled a journey leading up to and through her heart-lung transplant procedure. It is a gripping, lucid account of a roller-coaster of events and emotions affecting her and those closely surrounding her, giving us a unique insight into the effects transplantation can have’ – Professor John Wallwork

'On walks up to the park, my friends had to hang around “waiting for Di”, or “waiting to die” as they called it. I was skinny and scrawny and lived up to my nicknames “Spindle” and, with reference to the fact that my legs were so thin, it was lucky that they did not break, “Lucky Legs” – Diana Sanders (left) with her sisters, late 1960s

www.dianasanders.net