By Terry Woods, Craigavon (Committee Member of NITA)

The Gift of Life

I first started having trouble with my lungs in August 1981 when air started to escape causing severe pains in my chest. I was 21 years old married with 2 small children. My mother had died 2 months earlier after suffering for years with asthma and emphysema. She was just 45 years old. After a couple of weeks in Craigavon Hospital I was allowed home. I soon returned to work at the Ulster Carpet Mills.

Over the next 14 years my lungs collapsed a couple of times. I eventually had to go into the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for operations to strengthen my lungs. Things went well for a while but eventually I developed asthma and severe emphysema. I was finding it a struggle to do my work. Even getting dressed in the morning was a real task. I was eventually laid off work in 1993 due to my illness. My father had died in February 1992. He too, suffered severe breathing problems.

My health continued to deteriorate over the next couple of years. I was 7 stone in weight and couldn