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“My earliest memories are of riding horses in my parents’ farm in South Australia. My grandad, Tom, and dad, Jim,

were among Australia’s greatest horsemen and I naturally followed in their footsteps. Mum stayed home and took my two brothers to footy while I was with Dad, participating in my chosen sport of barrel racing.

When I’d compete, Dad always said it doesn’t matter where you finish as long as you dig deep and give it all you’ve got, so I grew up learning to never give up. Those lessons stood me in good stead when I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age nine.

Dad told me there was always someone out there worse off than me. I didn’t expect sympathy or special treatment. However, doctors discouraged me from playing sport, riding horses or going on school camp. Thankfully, it was against my parents’ morals to wrap me in cotton wool so I was allowed to play and ride, as much as my health permitted. At 12, I rode my two horses 300km (over six days) to Adelaide and raised $25,000 for juvenile diabetes. I also wanted other young people to see what we could do.

I was 28 when a routine diabetes-related eye check revealed an accumulation of blood vessels at the back of my left eye. The doctors said they could fix it with laser surgery but in a scenario that was about one in a million, a human error occurred and my left eye bled. I had surgery to try to save my sight but when I woke up, the vision in my left eye was gone.

They said the right eye now needed procedures to strengthen it so it could do the work of two. Again, the procedure went horribly wrong, and within three days, I’d lost the sight in my right eye, too. I was declared legally blind. I could make out slight shapes, as if looking through a glass of water at night, and I could read a really magnified text, but I had no depth perception or peripheral vision.

After moving back to my parents’ farm, the first thing I did was ride my horse, Fanta. There was no fear because I trusted her and I finally had a sense of freedom I felt as if I’d lost.

For the next six months, I did simple tasks – I could dress myself, count steps and walk without fear of falling, and I could ride. Each night, I found five things to be grateful for, and slowly regained my independence. After a while, I went to stay with friends on the Gold Coast. I found a job there in advertising that I could do using special computer software.

Then, in 2010, my kidney – I was only born with one – took a hit. My doctors weren’t sure exactly why, but by the time I showed any symptoms I was in acute renal failure. I was quickly put on dialysis, but my heart wasn’t handling it well and my blood pressure was too low. I was given three weeks to live.

I knew organ donation rates in our country were very low, but there was still hope. Even 1 per cent hope is better than nothing.

The phone rang 20 days later and the transplant coordinator said, ‘How would you feel about a transplant for Christmas?’ I was mentally prepared but knowing that someone had lost their life, and here I was being given a second chance... That made me break down.

I received a kidney-pancreas transplant, but recovery was as hard as expected. I was living in Sydney by then and had been sick for so long that when I felt well enough to go on a date, I asked a friend if he had any recommendations. He suggested Mark, so a few weeks later I emailed him. I told him about the transplant but left out details of my sight. I wanted him to see me function in society before he perceived me as disabled.

“We take the life we have with open

arms because we’re still here”

As a double organ transplant recipient who’s legally blind and has cancer, Megan McLoughlin, 35, knows about embracing challenges, and for her next one, she hopes to lead a herd of cattle over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She talks to Astha Gupta

Real life

South Australian Megan McLoughlin with her husband, Mark, their kids, Sam, 2, and Ella, 1, and horse Super.

SAVEA LIFE

Australia has one of the lowest organ donation rates in the developed

world. To register as a donor, go to donatelife. gov.au/decide

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When it was time to meet, I had to perform calculated moves in order for him to see how I functioned, so I chose a restaurant I knew and got there first. Our first date went for eight hours and he had no idea I couldn’t see.

It wasn’t until our third date, when I walked into something, that Mark got suspicious. He asked me if I hadn’t seen what I’d stepped into, so I said, ‘It’s a funny story but I can’t see.’ He asked if I could see a nearby pole and I said, ‘No.’ Then he asked if I could see him. I told him, ‘Not really.’ I thought he was going to do a runner. But he simply slipped his hand into mine and never left it. That day, I knew I was going to marry this man.

Around that time, I heard TV host Karl Stefanovic jokingly refer to the Sydney Harbour Bridge as an active stock route. It meant stockmen could take cattle across it as long as they paid the toll.

Having grown up with cattle, I thought it would be the perfect way to put organ donation on the world stage, as everyone knows the iconic bridge. But when I rang Dad and told him I wanted to take a herd of cattle across the bridge, he called me a bloody idiot and hung up. Dad has staged countless stunts, including a 400-head cattle stampede for the TV show McLeod’s Daughters, so I knew he could do it. He called back an hour later and said, ‘We can do this.’

We started Herd of Hope in 2012 and paid for everything from our own pocket. I travelled around Australia to get organisers, sponsors and families who’d been affected by organ donation on board. It’s been a long haul due to the dozens of parties involved, and the fact that something like this has never been done before. Having two kids put the brakes on things, too.

The event has been at risk of being cancelled so many times, but I’ll never give up on it. I’m facing a new battle now; in 2015 I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and my treatment hasn’t been successful so far. The anti-rejection meds for the transplant switch my immune system off, making me susceptible to forms of cancer. One of my meds makes me 60 per cent more likely to contract skin cancer alone.

But it’s just what organ transplant recipients deal with. We’ve been given a second chance at life and we’re beyond grateful. We take the life we have now with open arms because we’re still here. This is why Herd of Hope is important. We need support post-transplant. Mental health needs

JOIN MEGAN AND THE HERD TO PROMOTE ORGAN DONATIONHerd of Hope will cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge in November (date to be confirmed). The aim is to have more than 100,000 walkers, along with 40 cattle and eight stockmen and women on horseback, who are all directly connected to organ donation. All funds raised will go towards regional transplant services, as one in four recipients is located in rural Australia. To sponsor the herd or register as a walker, visit herdofhope.com.au

Megan with (from left) Mark and their daughter Ella; her brother Tom with his wife, Sasha, and their daughter Lottie; Megan’s son Sam; her parents, Tracy and Jim Willoughby; and the family’s dogs.

At each life event – my marriage, the birth of my kids – I release a silver heart balloon in honour of my donor. I shouldn’t be here but thanks to my donor and their family, I am. I don’t know who they are but I love them. I hope they’re proud of what I’m trying to achieve.”

addressing. I want to make people’s lives easier. Some people go through life and the hardest question they face is ‘skim or full cream’ and I appreciate how fortunate they are that life doesn’t throw them curve balls. But [whatever life may throw at you] there’s always hope. Hope is stronger than fear.

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