00:00
I'd accepted that I may not get healed
00:04
and I'd come to that place
00:05
where well, if that happens,
if that's your will, God
00:08
then I need to be right with you.
00:11
My name's Joyce and this is my story.
00:14
I went to the doctor's about 2010
00:16
with the symptoms and for two years
00:18
they couldn't find anything wrong.
00:20
I eventually saw a specialist
00:21
who said no, it's not that,
00:23
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, IPF
00:26
and the diagnosis for that was 2.5 years
00:30
to three years left to live.
00:32
And the only help they could give me
00:34
was a lung transplant,
a double lung transplant
00:37
but they said, the
hospital said don't expect,
00:40
don't build up any hope
00:41
because you may not get one.
00:44
When I first found out,
00:45
it was obviously it was
like a death sentence
00:48
and when you're given that,
00:49
and told you've got
2.5 years left to live,
00:52
it robs you of your future.
00:54
I did have a great faith in God,
00:56
I still do and I knew that
I wanted to glorify God.
01:00
If was going to be ill,
01:02
I wanted to glorify God in my illness.
01:04
And I knew I had a choice.
01:05
We're told and the Bible
tells us finish well,
01:07
run the race and finish well
01:09
and I knew that I had to finish well
01:12
and that was the choice I made.
01:13
Up until about 2014 I slowly declined.
01:16
I ended up on oxygen for 24
hours a day, extra oxygen.
01:21
Some days I was in a wheelchair
01:22
and most of the time I just
couldn't move from the chair.
01:25
So, coming up to Christmas December 2013,
01:29
I was very, very poorly
01:30
and we decided it would
probably be my last Christmas
01:34
and I woke up on Christmas
Day with a chest infection
01:36
and I knew that would affect my chances
01:39
of having that call and being on the list,
01:42
so I phoned them up
01:43
and spoke to a transplant
coordinator called Katie
01:47
and I explained the situation
01:49
and she said no, and go and
get the antibiotics, Joyce
01:51
she said because just think,
01:52
this time next week I could be ringing you
01:54
to say happy New Year, Joyce,
01:56
we think we've got you some new lungs
01:58
and if you're on antibiotics
that won't happen.
02:01
So, I went to see my doctor on the 27th,
02:03
he gave me a five-day
course of antibiotics
02:05
which was less than normal.
02:07
I took the last tablet on New Year's Eve
02:10
and at 20 past five on
New Year's Day morning
02:13
the phone went and I answered the call
02:16
and it was the same
Katie from the hospital
02:18
who said have you taken
your antibiotics, Joyce?
02:22
And I said yeah, and she said well,
02:24
happy New Year, we think
we've got you some new lungs,
02:28
you need to come in straightaway.
02:29
Death is inevitable
02:31
and it's something that
we've all got in common.
02:33
I've been so blessed.
02:34
God's given me a second chance,
02:36
I've received that gift
02:37
and I've had the second chance
02:39
but I know one day that
it will be time to go home
02:43
and I just wanted my
relationship with God to be right
02:48
and I know when I get called home
02:50
I do have a home to go to
and I've got that hope.
02:52
As Christians, we have that hope
02:54
that life on earth isn't the end,
02:56
we've got more, we've got eternity.
