Raising Awareness, Raising Funds

It's two weeks now since I published my book and it's all been very exciting to see a big project coming to fruition at last after eighteen months of planning and writing. I truly hope it will help raise awareness of what it's like living with a rare and life threatening disease - in my case pulmonary hypertension - and what it's like waiting on the transplant list when there is a huge shortage of organ donors. I also hope it shows just how much organ donation can transform and save a person's life and positively affect all those surrounding that person. 

I've been pleased with all the wonderful feedback I've received over the last couple of weeks - messages from friends and complete strangers alike  - it's all been so positive and encouraging ranging from people who can resonate with the emotions and feelings expressed in the book as they are experiencing similar journeys, to people who've found it enlightening and have even signed up to the organ donor register.

It's not too long off Mother's Day now, so if you can't think what to buy...  Or if you would just like to purchase a copy for yourself click on the relevant link below:

Purchase Book Amazon UK

Purchase Book Amazon USA

Any proceeds from my memoir, which is all about my journey from being diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension, living with the disease and its debilitating symptoms and treatments and waiting for and recovering from a heart and double lung transplant, will go to benefit charities that have supported me. These are: The PHAUK and Papworth Hospital (for benefit of the respective PH and Transplant support groups). Besides raising awareness through the book, hopefully some much needed funds may be raised too - book sales have been going well, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I'm chairman of the Transplant Patients Representative Group at Papworth and we are starting up a transplant patients' support and social group, for which we will need some basic equipment and room hire costs. Our very first meeting is on March 19th and any Papworth transplant patients pre or post are welcome. The details of all our meeting dates are below: 

Saturday March 19th

Saturday June 25th

Saturday September 3rd

Saturday November 26th

I've always attended the Papworth PH Matters support group too - again the group has to pay for equipment and room hire costs to keep running. The meeting dates are listed below:

Saturday March 12th

Saturday June 11th

September 10th

Meetings for both  groups are at 12 noon til 3pm and will be held at: The Studio, Library Complex, Lower Pendrill Court, Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire, CB23 3UY.

These two groups are very important to me and it would be great to be able to help them both. 

My family has always tried to support the PHAUK, as the organisation helped us so much through its informative website, brochures, conferences, online forum and facebook group. We would have been lost without them, especially in those early days of diagnosis. The organisation helped me make contact with other PH patients, who helped me tremendously and many of them are now lifelong friends. The PHAUK, therefore is another important cause dear to my heart. The website link is below:

PHAUK Website

In the meantime here's the link to my Facebook Author page - it would be fantastic if you could please like and share to help me spread the word as much as possible and raise awareness about Organ Donation and Pulmonary Hypertension and help me raise much needed funds through my book to aid these special causes. 

Life is for the Living Facebook Page