Page 154 - 梁文燕紀念中學（沙田）－青苗文集

Helen Liang Memorial Secondary School (Shatin)

Letter To Organ Donor

(Senior Section) 5D Annette Suen

Dear Sir,
I am the receiver of your son’s generous donation. The reason I am writing is
to express my heartfelt thanks for your selflessness and generosity. All I could say is
‘Thank you’, and no words can explain how indebted I am to your kindness.
Before receiving the most precious gift your son gave me, I have never
thought that I could be able to live as a normal person again. Breathing, walking –
everything that is perceived as the norm was almost impossible to me. I have never
thought, or even hoped that one day I could be able to breathe without the help of
machines, to walk without any of my crippling asthma attacks. With your gift, I can
be a flying eagle again, like what I used to be, wandering around freely and making
my own future.
I am a fifty-one-year-old man with a wife and a 22-year-old son. I used to be
a businessman before I found out about my disease. Due to my poor upbringing, I
always believed in the myth that ‘money is the root of happiness’. I wanted to satisfy
whatever my family needed, thus I worked my best to provide them the richest
material life as much as I could. Having been inundated with my job, I did not realize
my health was at risk. Only until my life was threatened, I discovered that money is
not the prime element that makes you happy. Everything, however, was too late.
I was despaired when I noticed my illness, and this news affected my wife
and my son too. Every day was like living in hell. The situation was getting worse
every single day, from normal to abnormal, from slight frustration to total despair.
My family, my partners, and my only friend Steven cheered me up, but I knew it was
almost impossible: there are too many patients dying from the lack of transplantable
organs. I thought luck would not come to me this time. But unexpectedly, I saw light.
There was a sad incident of a young man dying in a traffic accident, yet his lungs
were a perfect match for me. You could not imagine the bitter-sweet joy I had upon
receiving this news.
I immediately underwent surgery and, as you know, it was very successful. I
really do cherish and enjoy my life after standing on the verge of death. I have been
enjoying my retirement, although it might have been earlier than I had expected. I

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