In 2002, aged just 16, I met my future wife Samantha, aged 17, at a children’s summer club.  Sam suffered from Cystic Fibrosis – although you’d never guess.  We married in 2007 after we both finished our university degrees; Sam studied to be a primary school teacher and I studied Pharmacology.  We settled into married life and our careers and I began studying for my doctorate at the University of Oxford.

After a couple of years of teaching and a few hospitalisations Sam’s lungs deteriorated to the point that she needed a double lung transplant to survive.  We waited for the life-saving phone call and Sam campaigned tirelessly for organ donation awareness, even appearing on the BBC national news.  I continued my studies, which I completed in 2012, whilst balancing being her carer.  We fought and waited for over three years for a transplant, but sadly Sam lost her battle in April 2013.

Although I work as cancer research scientist at the University of Oxford I still continue Sam’s legacy by campaigning for organ donation awareness.