Sun Feb 12 2012
by Pamela Engel
Reporter
Cuyahoga Falls -- After Monica Phillips received a life-saving double-lung transplant in May, she decided she wanted to give back to the organization that gave her life, by walking in LifeBanc's 12th annual Gift of Life Walk and Run at Blossom Music Center.
After suffering from asthma all her life, Phillips was diagnosed with idiosyncratic pulmonary fibrosis -- an incurable disease that causes scarring and thickening of the lungs -- about five years ago, and received her transplant from LifeBanc 40 days after going on the organ donor waiting list. Only three months after her surgery, Phillips, a Cuyahoga Falls resident, decided to participate in the Aug. 14 LifeBanc event, which raised money for the nonprofit organization.
"I felt proud ... and very lucky that I could participate such a short time after having the transplant," Phillips said. "I wanted to give back to the organization that helped save my life."
LifeBanc is a "nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization for Northeast Ohio," according to its website. It provides organs to both The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
"I had the option of having the transplant or continuing on the medicine and seeing how long I'd last," Phillips said. "I chose to live."
Phillips said that her quality of life completely changed after she received the transplant.
"I can breathe normally for the first time in my life," Phillips said. "I can travel, I can do anything I want to. It's also improved my family's quality of life. They don't have to help me do my daily activities anymore."
Although full recovery from the transplant takes six months to a year, Phillips said she was able to leave her house after about eight weeks, and participate in the Gift of Life Walk after only three months.
More than 1,500 people participated in the Gift of Life Walk and Run, which raised more than $100,000 to go toward LifeBanc's efforts to increase the number of organ, tissue and eye donors in the area, according to a press release from the organization.
Phillips' husband, daughter, aunt, father and close family friend walked with her in the event. Together, the team raised about $900.
"[Next year] we're planning to get together a bigger team and collect more money," she said.
E-mail: pengel@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3145
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