Hello, my name is Xenia, I am 18 years old and I had a lung transplant at the age of seven. I have lived with the chronic metabolic disease cystic fibrosis since birth and apart from minor restrictions, this was not a major problem until I started school, because inhaling several times a day and physiotherapy were simply part of my life.

Suddenly I was dependent on a constant supply of oxygen

In the first few months of first grade, however, my health situation deteriorated dramatically and I was suddenly dependent on a permanent supply of oxygen. By Christmas, I was in such a bad way that I became a permanent patient at the university hospital in my home town of Freiburg. They then put me in touch with Hannover Medical School (MHH). It very quickly became clear that I urgently needed to be put on the waiting list for a donor lung.

My body was just trying to survive instead of living

I don't fully remember my seventh birthday, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that at that time my body was just trying to survive rather than live. Five months later, in June 2010, my mother received the eagerly awaited phone call and the next day I received my new and, above all, healthy donor organ.

Cycling, mountaineering and surfing are my greatest passions!

Overall, the first year after my transplant was no walk in the park, but I've never been as bad as I was before! And I'm making the most of it: In the first winter, with my new lungs, I learned how to snowboard and at 16 I finished my snowboard instructor training. In addition, cycling, mountaineering and surfing are my greatest passions.

Two years ago, I climbed my first two four-thousand-meter peaks, the Allalinhorn (4027m) and the Bishorn (4153m). In summer 2021, I started a project in which I cycled from Flensburg to Garmisch-Partenkirchen with my bike and tent to then climb Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze.

You should see what you can make of it!

My life as I live it now would never have been possible without the help and support of my parents, my three brothers, the nursing staff and the physicians who treated me.
Receiving a new organ is not a matter of course, but a great, indescribable gift. If you are given this opportunity, you should go your own personal way and see what you can do with it.