“I wake up every morning hoping for the call”: UHNM nurse and mum of three waiting for double transplant encourages others to sign up to organ donation register
A Stoke-on-Trent nurse and mum of three who has spent almost twenty years caring for some of the sickest patients at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) is now waiting for life-saving care of her own.
Joanne Blackburn, 44, has been a staff nurse on the Royal Stoke University Hospital’s Critical Care Unit for 18 years but for the last two years has also been on the waiting register for a kidney and pancreas transplant.
Diagnosed with diabetes at just 17, Joanne’s health has deteriorated to the point where she will soon need dialysis unless a transplant can take place, and during Organ Donation Week is appealing to others to consider signing the organ donation register and giving others a potentially life-saving gift.
Joanne said: "Without a transplant I’ll be on dialysis, but I don’t know how long I can live like that. Every month I send my bloods off to check for a tissue match. It could take years, you’re just waiting and hoping for the phone call.
“I’m a positive person and love my job, but I wake up most mornings thinking I didn’t get a phone call overnight, so I just get up and carry on.
“Being listed for transplant changes everything, you can’t book holidays or plan ahead just in case the phone rings. I want the transplant, but I know it means someone else has lost their life. That’s a big thing to live with."
Joanne lives with her husband of 19 years, Ian, and their three daughters Madi,17, Maizie 13, and Hattie 10.
She said: "Waiting for a transplant has changed the way I think about the future. I start planning Christmas in September just in case I don’t make it that far. I constantly do memory things with my kids like making blankets so they’ll have something to hold onto if anything happens to me. I’m very open with them and they know the risks, even going through a transplant could kill me.
“I keep smiling because there’s no point being depressed about it, but I do feel like mortality hangs over me every day."
Clare Neeson is a specialist nurse for organ donation at UHNM who has worked with Joanne on critical care for a number of years.
She said: "Joanne is one of the strongest people I know, she just keeps going and always turns up giving the most amazing care to our sickest patients. I’m in awe of her and just want this transplant to happen so she can have the healthy life she deserves."
Over the past year thanks to the generosity of patients and families, UHNM’s organ donation team supported 36 organ donors, which meant 95 people were able to receive a life-saving or life-changing transplant, as well as 116 cornea donations to restore sight, putting UHNM amongst the country’s largest donor-generating centres thanks to its status as a major trauma centre.
Dr Prabhjoyt Kler, consultant in critical care and anaesthesia and clinical lead for organ donation at UHNM said: “Joanne is an exceptional nurse and colleague, and we are so proud of the courage she shows every single day. The whole UHNM team is behind her supporting her in every way we can, including adjusting her working hours to help her manage her health. Despite everything she is going through she continues to give so much to her patients and her team which is truly inspiring."
Joanne said: "If things go to plan and I get a match, it would be life-changing. Working in critical care I know what an incredible gift it is when families say yes to donation. You don’t need your organs when you’re gone, but by signing up to the organ donation register you could save so many people’s lives.”
To find out more and register visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk.