THE freedom that comes from having a life-changing operation isn’t in the big events or the milestones but in the little things, the everyday achievements.

Pauline Ginn would once have baulked at going to the shops or visiting a friend, but three years on from a heart and double lung transplant she calls the ability to do just that ‘freedom’.

Mrs Ginn has just celebrated the third anniversary of her operation and is flushed with delight at the life-changes she now enjoys.

When asked about what she enjoys most about having a new lease of life she said: “It’s the things we can plan. Before we didn’t do anything, it’s nice to go out as a couple and do normal things — go out for a meal.

“It’s not as if I have to climb something, it’s the day-to-day things.

“For example we went to a wedding this weekend. Before my operation I was on oxygen 24 hours a day, there’s no way on Earth we would have been able to consider going to the wedding and staying overnight.

“Even getting ready would have been too much hassle. I was so breathless and blue before.

“It was like an existence, I wouldn’t look forward to doing anything. We couldn’t plan ahead to do anything or have holidays, everything was a standstill.”

She said: “Even if my son or daughter had plans I couldn’t really be part of them but now it’s different.

“I think that’s why we enjoyed this wedding so much because I have that freedom now, to get ready, putting nice things on and doing my make up and I’m not blue or breathless.

But last year Mrs Ginn and husband Terry, a courtesy car driver, put their planning into overdrive and went on three holidays.

Mrs Ginn, aged 57, who lives in Winterfield Drive, Daubhill with her husband and four rescue cats, was born with a hole in her heart.

Despite a patch operation in May, 1983, she still didn’t feel any better and her condition puzzled doctors.

She said: “After the operation on my heart I still didn’t feel any different.”

She was eventually referred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield in 2003 where she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, which makes the heart less efficient at pumping blood around the body and causes high blood pressure.

After years of tablets and treatments Mrs Ginn caught a chest infection and ended up in hospital in Sheffield for three months. Her family prepared for the worst and she said her husband, Terry, was told not to expect her to come home.

Fortunately, after altering her medication, Mrs Ginn pulled through and was allowed to return home but had oxygen pipes fitted throughout her house and was given a mobile oxygen unit.

She was also placed on the transplant list.

Mr and Mrs Ginn said they were both expecting to be in for a long wait for a donor but the call came at 7am just three weeks after she had been discharged from Wythenshawe Hospital.

She said: “It was 7am and Terry was working away, they rang and said ‘how are you?’ and I’m thinking ‘why are you ringing at this time to ask that?’

“She said, ‘It’s just, we have a heart and lungs for you if you want to come in?’”

Mrs Ginn couldn’t believe it was real but sure enough later that day Mrs Ginn’s surgeon Rajamiyer Venkateswaran told her he was happy with the donor organs and was ready to perform the transplant.

It was only afterwards he revealed it was his first heart and double lung transplant, the first one done at Wythenshawe in 15 years.

Mrs Ginn described her emotions on that day: “It’s mixed emotions, you’re thinking ‘yes it’s good’ but you’re crying because you’re happy and you’re sad.

“You think what if I don’t wake up but if I don’t have it done there are days I might not wake up anyway and you’re thinking that somebody has died and someone is grieving somewhere.”

Mrs Ginn doesn’t know who her donor is but says she knows she was a woman in her 50s from the North West.

Now Mrs Ginn isn’t blue she’s ‘pink’ and lives a life without tubes and the constant worry about oxygen.

Her husband Terry agreed, he said ability to plan ahead and not worry about things like a wheelchair and oxygen tank when heading out or going away was a huge relief.

Speaking of plans, the couple are looking forward to their next holiday, they’re going to Tenerife to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.