30/05/2026
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A Walsall mum-of-one has bravely opened up on her reality as she awaits an urgent, 'last chance' transplant at a Birmingham hospital.
Kelly Cooley, aged just 46, was given three to five years to live after a diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis. The prognosis came around four years ago after private tests confirmed her condition.
Now, the mum is just one of around 1,500 Midlands patients, all desperately waiting for an organ donor. Speaking to BirminghamLive about her prospects, she urged everyone to have serious conversations around donation with their relatives.
For Kelly, her illness has 'taken over her life' and now means she relies on an oxygen tank 24/7. She's been on the waiting list for a double lung transplant for two years at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, but she fears she's 'running out of time'.
She said: "I was very active [before], I could run upstairs. I never stopped. I had a lovely life. Now if I want to go out, I have to go out in a wheelchair and with an oxygen tank.
"It is a horrible, horrible illness. You can't breathe, you're on oxygen, you can't walk, you get breathless, loss of appetite, feel like you have the flu.
"The illness has taken over my life now. They always told me it would. I thought 'I'll be ok', then it hits you and you get scared.
"I know a transplant is my only chance. If I don't get a transplant, I'm going to die. That's where I'm at, at the minute."
