Transplant recipient’s milestone
FOR a double lung and heart transplant recipient, Kate Phillips has a remarkably good sense of humour about it.
“I’m glad you noticed,” the Brisbane landscape architect says, laughing.
“It definitely helps sometimes. You just don’t realise how much you can do with a lungful of fresh air and a really strong, steady heart.”
Five years after undergoing the operation that saved her life, Phillips will line up for her first full Ironman in Cairns tomorrow, in yet another chapter of the “beautiful second chance” she’s been given.
“The last couple of days I’ve felt a little overwhelmed,” she said. “Ironman is the biggest challenge I’ve set myself. I just need to be tough but it does freak me out sometimes.
“Occasionally, I stop and think, ‘I don’t even have any of my own central organs’. But I was sick for so long … and honestly (the transplant) was the greatest gift I could have ever received.”
Phillips was born with congenital heart disease. Soon after, she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension.
“The top two chambers of my heart had the wall missing,” she said.
“I had surgery at 10 months to correct it. Pulmonary hypertension is a lung disease but it affects your heart too.”
Still, Phillips enjoyed a reasonably healthy childhood before a glandular virus weakened her heart at the age of 16, leading to a “downward spiral” of traumatic health episodes.
“Every couple of months something terrible would happen,” she said.
“I was at a point where I couldn’t even walk and talk.
“I was taking a walking test at the hospital one day in 2010 and suffered a cardiac arrest. You’re kind of begging for a transplant by then.”
Doctors nominated Phillips for a transplant soon after but there were no guarantees.
“You speak to a psychologist, a physio,” she said.
“You have to really sell yourself and show that you’re willing to do the upkeep to keep this transplant going.”
Phillips kept an overnight bag with her at all times in case she needed to be rushed into surgery. In 2013, she finally received the transplant.
“They call it ‘a block’ when you receive the lungs and heart all from one donor,” she said.
“There are maybe two or three transplants like it in Australia every year.”
Amazingly, three years later she completed the half Ironman in Cairns.
Friend Kylie Anderson said underneath Phillips’ “effervescent” personality was a determined mind and strong will.
“The great thing about Kate is that she has more than her fair share of challenges but it is not stopping her,” Anderson said. “I feel like it makes her more determined. She’s ticking the next thing off the box.”
But this weekend Phillips says she’ll be doing more than ticking a box if she is to cross the finish line.
“It gives me goosebumps to think about. I think I’ll lose it. I’m a crier from way back.
“I think about the donor every day and their family as well. With this race coinciding with my five-year anniversary of my transplant, it feels special to be here doing this.”
IRONMAN IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I’VE SET MYSELF. I JUST NEED TO BE TOUGH BUT IT DOES FREAK ME OUT SOMETIMES KATE PHILLIPS