Nardya Miller from Brisbane had a double lung transplant 2014, but she has been suffering chronic rejection of her new lungs ever since. Photo / Facebook
Nardya Miller from Brisbane had a double lung transplant 2014, but she has been suffering chronic rejection of her new lungs ever since. Photo / Facebook
Cystic Fibrosis sufferer and transplant patient Nardya Miller promotes organ donation in her final days of life.
A dying Brisbane woman is using her final days to promote organ donation.
Last Wednesday, 25-year-old Nardya Miller was given a week to live. On Sunday she was admitted to palliative care.
The beauty salon owner has cystic fibrosis (CF) and her body is rejecting a double lung transplant she had over two years ago, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports.
Miller's fiance Liam Fitzgerald said it isn't CF that is killing her, it is the chronic rejection she was diagnosed with three months ago.
"CF was a part of her life for 23 years and got her to needing a bilateral lung transplant. But after the first 11 months post surgery, being so perfect, the lungs started to fail, over and over again requiring treatments she never thought she would have to go through.
"She went through rounds of plasmapheresis to try stop donor specific antibodies but nothing worked."
Fitzgerald said Miller wants everyone to know how important organ donation is.
"The only way people will ever have a second chance at life is to be an organ donor."
Nardya, pictured with fiance Liam, is not likely to survive the week. Photo / Facebook
Miller's cousin Tachae Douglas-Miller said she underwent the lung transplant in 2014 because she was "sick of not being able to breathe and sick of fighting a never-ending battle".
"Although we hear stories on how new lungs had changed people lives, Nardya wasn't so lucky.
"After undergoing the double lung transplant she didn't realise she was so ill."
But instead of letting her illness get the better of her, she started up her own beauty business and bought a house with Fitzgerald, adopting three "beautiful little fur babies".
"She started to make her dream of opening her own beauty store a reality [because] she didn't want to stop working as she didn't want to burden her fiance with debt.
"Unfortunately now, Nardya is losing the battle. [She] won't be going home."
Douglas-Miller and her sister Ainsley Douglas-Miller started a Go Fund Me to help keep Miller's dreams of not leaving her fiance in debt, alive.
Already more than $15,000 has been raised by more than 400 people in six days, smashing the $10,000 target.
"We are overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. I can't thank everyone enough."
Despite only having days to live, Miller is still "witty, humorous and talkative", said Douglas-Miller.
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) primarily affects the lungs and digestive system because of a malfunction in the exocrine system, responsible for producing saliva, sweat, tears and mucus.
There is no cure. People with CF develop an abnormal amount of excessively thick and sticky mucus within the lungs, airways and the digestive system.
The mucus traps bacteria in the lungs, resulting in recurrent infections, which lead to irreversible damage.
Lung failure is the major cause of death for someone with CF.
