My story

A lung transplant recipient

Leanne Demers was born in Sydney and spent her childhood in the Sutherland Shire, close to beaches where she built sandcastles, ran and played in the ocean, breathing in the salty sea air and eating bright green bubble gum ice cream.

Born with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), Leanne spent her childhood learning to live as normal a life as possible, that life included physiotherapy, nebulisers and lots of tablets. Her earliest memories are of jumping on the trampoline – the best form of physiotherapy to shift mucous from her lungs.

CF was not a lonely life because her brother Glenn, two years her senior, sat with her every morning; he too had CF and followed the same treatment plan as Leanne. It helped to know that someone else knew what life with CF was like. Like a twin, when Glenn died of leukaemia at just fifteen, it felt like a part of her was gone...

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