Honor Hero: Alix

September 11th 2010 was to be a special day that I would share with my two daughters. We were visiting a day spa for a few

hours of massage and pampering followed by lunch and some time for shopping. The following hours and days would change my life forever. We arrived home at 5.30. A quick shower and change and my youngest daughter Alix was out the door and off visiting a friend that lived two blocks away. I settled in for a night at home catching up with the weekend paper and having a quite wine. And in no time in started, the blaring of ambulance sirens not one not two but three. From a very young age I always said a silent pray for whoever was in that ambulance or whoever they were going to attend to. I taught my children to do the same thing. So I said a few silent prays that night. Little did I know that those sirens where for my daughter. Little did I know that the moody teenage hormonal girl that was only 16 - had decided that she no longer wanted to be in this world. We all dread as parents those late night telephone calls, we presume the worst. I had imagined such a call would come at midnight or in the early hours of the morning. Or the dreaded knock at the door. Mine came at 8.30 that night. Exactly two hours after Alix had left the house. Having heard the account of what happened that night, I knew that I had lost my daughter. There was going to be no miraculous recovery, no happy ending. Nothing made any sense and everything was so surreal. Even now almost 8 years on, everything is still so surreal to me. Organ donation was the only positive thing I could do. Some good had to come out of this tragedy. Because of the drugs that were used to keep Alix alive, there was damage to her heart and lungs. So these could not be donated. We were fortunate that she could donate her liver and kidneys. Corneas also and pancreas. I have been fortunate enough to have met Alix's liver recipient and one of her kidney recipients. This has been of enormous comfort to me. And has been the catalyst in dealing with my grief. Mother of an amazing girl Vikki