“I CAN’T wait to get back to being me,” says Stacie Pridden, who has spoken for the first time about her life-saving operation, as she continues her recovery at home.

Stacie, 24, from Pinehurst, has a healthy glow following last month’s heart and double lung transplant operation at Cambridgeshire’s Papworth Hospital and is free of the oxygen tubes that she once relied upon 24 hours a day.

“I feel really good, it felt like I had a really bad cold for ages that just wouldn’t go away; now I can’t wait to get back to being me, to feeling normal again,” she said.

The only clue to Stacie’s monumental month is an already fading scar that goes from her chest to her stomach.

Before her transplant, Stacie was sleeping for 16 to 18 hours a day and was unable to speak at length or walk short distances without becoming dangerously out of breath.

“Before, I wasn’t living, I wasn’t being a normal 24 year old, I was so ill. Now it’s both scary and exciting to think of what could be ahead in my future,” she said.

It was during a difficult day that Stacie received the call she had been waiting for.

“I got a call about 4.30pm when I was trying to sleep. I ignored it because I was so tired but when I saw I had a voicemail, I knew,” she said.

“They told me I had a match and I needed to make it there by 8pm. That was when I started to believe it could be real.”

Stacie suffered from pulmonary hypertension – a condition where the right side of the heart is damaged, making it less efficient at pumping blood around the body - and making it very difficult to breathe. After three false alarms in three years Stacie remained cautiously optimistic about the prospect of a transplant.

“I just didn’t think it was my time as I’d been let down before. I wasn’t excited but I told my mum and waited for the ambulance.

It was only when a wheelchair arrived to take her to theatre that Stacie realise this was no false alarm.

“I was a big ball of anxiety, I was fidgeting, I was gripping onto the co-ordinator’s hand for dear life. Part of me couldn’t quite believe it was happening but I was so, so scared,” she said.

After the six-hour operation - which revealed that her lungs were critically damaged - Stacie was wheeled to recovery, where she astounded her doctors by requesting diet Coke and eating jelly and ice cream.

She said: “I was in chronic pain, on about a scale of eight or nine a day before, people couldn’t believe that I wasn’t in more pain when I woke up but when you learn to cope with that pain, nothing really gets to you.”

By the next morning Stacie was eating cereal. She was later discharged from the intensive care unit to continue her rehabilitation.

“It didn’t feel like three weeks because I was busy every day," she said. "People thought I was mad for going outside and walking but that’s just the way I cope with things.

“I’ve always recovered quickly from surgery so there was no reason why I shouldn’t this time.

“I think it was because I was so ready for it emotionally and physically that I was able to bounce back quicker.”

And the pace hasn’t slowed down since she was given the all-clear to return to Swindon, appearing on national television and being inundated with messages from well-wishers.

Andy Murray fan Stacie is now moving forward with her new life, which includes travel, completing her degree and a VIP day out at Wimbledon, courtesy of ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“This first year will be getting used to it, it will be tough but at least now I know I have a future,” she said.

“Thank you to everyone in Swindon that supported me. I really appreciate it. And please sign up to the organ donor register.

“People can see from this that miracles do happen. A lot of people don’t want to go on the transplant register but it saves lives.

“I’m the proof of that.”

This Is Wiltshire:

  • On the mend - Stacie Pridden at home. Picture: DAVE COX