Donor's lungs to help man compete in transplant games

One of 15 New Zealand athletes, Mr Tuhiwai was one of the "lucky" ones when he received a double lung transplant four years ago.

He was diagnosed with an emphysema type disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin, in 1998 after initially being told his ailment was asthma.

Mr Tuhiwai said he felt like he was breathing with "duct tape and cotton wool over his mouth" when at his worst. "I started getting tireder and tireder, and nothing was helping," he said.

Before his illness Mr Tuhiwai had been an extremely active person and he credits the transplant with saving his life and getting him back into sports.

Privacy laws prevent him knowing who his donor was, but he was told the donor's family would rather not meet him.

He is excited about celebrating his new lease of life at the upcoming games.

"They're just a celebration of life. You don't have to be some great big fitness freak to compete," he said.

Lung transplants have been available in New Zealand for only 12 years and only 32 people have received them. They are one of the hardest transplants to deal with because, as Mr Tuhiwai said, "It's constantly exposed to danger, every time you breathe. This is on top of the normal rejection problems faced with every transplant."

Mr Tuhiwai's transplant is now reaching the end of its life. The effectiveness of lung transplants decreases by 30 per cent over a five-year period and Mr Tuhiwai will need another transplant in the near future.

"My health is bit like a rollercoaster, but at the moment I feel fantastic. I just have to take each day as it comes," he said.

New Zealand has the lowest organ donation rate in the Western world, less than half of the rate in countries like Spain, Italy, Finland and the Czech Republic.

Organ donation rates among Maori and Polynesian people are particularly low.

Andy Tookey, head of the organ donation lobby group Give Life NZ, said public education was the answer to improving donation rates and information needed to be more widely available.

The government had produced a flyer encouraging organ donation but it was produced only in English and the Health Ministry said it was "too expensive" to distribute. Organ Donation New Zealand is also not listed in the phone book.

"Part of their mandate is to provide public education. How can they educate if you can't get hold of them?" said Mr Tookey.

courtesy of STUFF: www.stuff.co.nz