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Fitness & Health

26th Dec 2017

Cystic Fibrosis activist Orla Tinsley confirms lung transplant was a success

Michael Lanigan

Organ donor card Orla Tinsley

A great Christmas present.

Irish Cystic Fibrosis campaigner Orla Tinsley has revealed that her double lung transplant operation was a success.

Posting a message to her Twitter on St. Stephen’s day, Tinsley tweeted to say, “I now have shiny new lugs and spent yesterday, with my family, thinking of my donor and their family. I am forever grateful for their forward thinking and generosity. #recycleyourself #beatcf”

Tinsley, a Kildare native living in New York has been in recovery from the transplant operation since 21 December. She had previously received six calls about a potential double lung transplant, but none of the potential donors were a suitable match. Today, however, she confirmed that the seventh had in fact worked out.

Tinsley has been actively campaigning for people with Cystic Fibrosis and an improvement in their treatment for over a decade. She has also written about her own experience with the condition in the Irish Times since 2005.

Her activism has helped draw attention to the issue, which affects 1,200 people nationwide and played a factor in the opening of a dedicated Cystic Fibrosis unit at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin in 2012.

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