Images : Courtesy Coreen Walstra

Coreen with long-time friend and liver donor Morgan Kloes

They need to be the same blood type as the recipient , and they need to be in pretty decent health , too . They also need to be taller , because your organs grow to the size of your body , and because of the size of the portion they need to donate , their liver still needs to be able to function and be strong .

Back home , I was struggling with fatigue , but tried to stay somewhat fit , so that my body would be strong for the surgery , and so I managed to avoid the hospital for a little while . However , I really started to feel the effects of what was happening to my body , and after being admitted into Donald Gordon again , I was told that my liver was failing . I now understood why I was so tired , and why I had battled with my weight for so long – it was all related to my liver . ( On the plus side , the meds I had been put on in September 2019 meant that I walked into the hospital weighing 93 kilograms , and left weighing 72 kilograms . All of that weight had been water retention !)

I was put onto new meds , blood thinners and diuretics . Let me tell you , those blood thinners are wild . Any minor bump made me look like I ’ d been in numerous pub brawls , and even a small cut made me think I was losing all the blood contents of my body . Meanwhile , I was very open about my journey on social media , because I believe that it is important to share both the highs and lows – not for sympathy , but to raise awareness . I knew that if I shared my story , more people would start talking about organ donation , because we don ’ t really talk about these things if we don ’ t know someone who has been affected by it . I wanted to get the conversation going , and get people thinking about it .

The transplantee team behind TELL

As part of this , in June 2020 , I got involved with TELL , or Transplant Education for Living Legacies , an amazing non-profit organisation that raises awareness and encourages conversation around organ donation . TELL is managed by a group of incredible women . Managing Director Stella has been awaiting a kidney transplant for 14 years now , while Fawn , our Marketing Director , had a double lung transplant in 2013 , and Finance Director Alice has had two double lung transplants . And then there ’ s me , the Project Manager .

In South Africa , if you are on your deathbed , your family makes the final decision about what happens to your body . This is why it is so important to have this conversation with your family and friends , because we need to tell people around us that we are organ donors . And in June 2020 , TELL shared my story as a

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