“I owe my life to a man I will never know. I think about him every single day” – Joseph’s story

Tell us about your transplant journey

I was born with cystic fibrosis, and ten years ago, on Christmas Eve in 2015, a lung transplant saved my life. 

My incredible medical team did everything they could for me, but I wasn’t expected to live to be a teenager.

I’d reached my 30s and my lungs had suffered so much damage that I was being kept alive by machines - I struggled to talk or stand, needing constant oxygen and intravenous antibiotics all the time.  

I had a remarkably straightforward journey to receiving my transplant, and I know most people aren’t so lucky. I was on the waitlist for only ten days, when the UK average for lungs is around 18 months. I barely had any time to think about it.

I also got my transplant on my first call, so I didn’t have to deal with the disappointment of false alarms, which many people go through. In both respects, I was incredibly fortunate. 

The difference is life and death. Without a transplant, I would not be here. Before my operation, even the most basic of tasks was beyond me because I was so unwell.  

What is the Hope Takes Flight campaign?

For a long time, I’d been trying to think of a way to use origami for the benefit of others, so when NHS Blood and Transplant contacted me about the idea, I couldn’t believe it. 

I’ve spent a huge portion of my life either in hospital or too unwell to leave my home, often even my bed. Yet in nothing more than a piece of paper, there existed the whole world, the ability to create that which I couldn’t experience for real. Medicine has cared for my body, but origami has cared for my mind. 

In the video, the plane that binds the individual stories together. It is an attempt to make the quite abstract idea of donation, the passing of life from one person to another, tangible. 

This is the story of how organ donors, and their families in consenting, keep other families together. Today, this is more important than ever, because the number of people waiting for a transplant is at an all-time high. Every day, people die for lack of organs and, had my own donor and his family not discussed donation during his life, I would likely be part of this statistic. Instead, I am alive, and my donor lives on.

Why did you decide to take part in the campaign?

I know my donor family must be heartbroken, and it is hard to find the words to say to them. I think they and my donor are amazing. I owe my life to a man I will never know. I think about him every single day.  

It means the world to me to be involved. Since my transplant, I have been searching for meaning (perhaps we all are), and it is helping to provide that. I see it as my duty to use this chance for something that matters more than me - this project does. 

You can make your own Hope Takes Flight plane by following the instructions on the British Origami Society website here. Or simply make your own paper plane and send your photo into the campaign.

You can find out more about organ donation here.

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