Looking at her now, you would never know that 76-year-old Veronica "Vera" Dwyer is a woman who, in 1988, was given just five years to live.
Twenty-nine years ago Vera was diagnosed with fibrosing alveolitis, a potentially fatal condition that makes breathing progressively more difficult and gradually thickens the walls of the lungs until oxygen can no longer pass into the bloodstream.
Even today, only 50% of patients who have the disease are expected to live for more than five years after diagnosis.
Things were so different back in 1963 when 22-year-old Veronica Waldron met and married Michael Dwyer in Manchester, UK; this sunny, eternally optimistic Irish lass was a qualified secretary while Michael, who also hailed from the Republic of Ireland, worked as a groundsman for the likes of legendary footballer George Best.
After the birth of their four children – Paul, Della, Linda and Finbarr – the Dwyers permanently returned to Ireland and settled at Michael’s home farm in Carrowcrory, Keash, Co. Sligo, where they set about building a house and a new life in the country.
Rearing cattle, growing fresh vegetables and raising their four children in a clean, healthy environment, Vera's bucolic ideal was shattered when she began to feel ill during the early 1980s.
As a non-smoker and a super-fit camogie player (a sport similar to hurling) who was chosen to represent her county, Vera attributed her breathlessness to living and working in such close proximity to the family’s livestock.
She tried to ignore the symptoms and continued working on the farm, not realising that the cells of her lungs were gradually dying.
By 1988 Vera was bed-bound, unable to walk, breathing oxygen from a tank and too weak even to brush her own teeth. Her condition was so bad that she was given the last rites three times that year.
Transplant operations were not available in Ireland at the time so preparations were made for Vera to be flown to Harefield Hospital near London, where her surgeon, the eminent professor Magdi Habib Yacoub, declared that Vera had only days to live unless a lung donor could be found straight away.
One of her lungs had already died and the other was dangerously infected.
Miraculously a suitable lung donor was found just three days later and Professor Yacoub began his operation.
More than eight hours later Vera began her hospitalised recuperation that lasted more than three months.
She was one of the very first patients to undergo the pioneering single-lung surgery at Harefield Hospital. Joined by her husband and daughter, Linda, Vera remained in London for the duration of her recovery, while relatives looked after the three other children back in Ireland.
"They gave me a maximum of five years to live after the operation," Vera remembers, "and nearly 30 years later I’m still here."
Indeed, Vera holds the record for being the world’s Longest surviving single lung transplant patient.
Vera is eternally grateful to her 24-year-old female donor – whose second lung and heart also saved the lives of two other transplant patients that night – and to Professor (now Sir) Magdi Habib Yacoub for his swift and expert diagnosis and treatment.
"He was a perfect gentleman and worked all night to keep me alive," she recalls.
She is also indebted to the nursing staff who cared for her as, her weight having plummeted to just six stone, she recovered in hospital, learning to walk, talk and eat solid food all over again.
In fact, she and her husband, Michael, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with balloons and champagne at Harefield Hospital during her recovery and she is still in contact with several of the nurses who looked after her.
While Vera began her long and often painful recovery, her family and friends back in Ireland hadn’t forgotten about her either. In her absence they organised a massive fundraising campaign all over the country, without which, Vera insists her family "couldn’t have survived".
When she returned home, that support continued, along with daily visits from her parish priest, Father McLoughlan.
"He liked to watch the racing – he got me into the horses," laughs Vera.
She was also under the watchful eye of her consultant, Professor Jim Egan, a leading international specialist in respiratory medicine in Dublin.
Life has been eventful since the operation.
Vera lost her beloved husband, Michael, but now has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to keep her occupied. She spent five years on dialysis and had a kidney transplant in 2009.
Then in 2016 this world record-breaker was honoured with an invitation to Dublin to meet the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, at his official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin.
"He was a lovely man and it was a great day – I got to sit on Marie Antoinette’s sofa!".
Vera is a remarkable woman and her unfailing optimism in the face of so much adversity is extraordinary. She continues to be monitored by the amazing staff at Mater Hospital, Dublin, and at Sligo University Hospital, as well by her friends, family and home care assistants. Her advice to others?
