For Tina Beckbessinger, life really did begin when she turned 30, and having faced many challenges throughout her childhood, she is now grabbing life with both hands
Story Andrea Abbott
Tina Beckbessinger throws down the gauntlet. “Be a life saver. I dare you.” Who better to issue such a challenge than heart and double lung transplantee, Tina. “Without the Organ Donor Foundation, I wouldn’t be here. I also think about my donor all the time.” Tina exudes energy, yet she was once so weak she slept 20 hours a day. “Mom would come to my room not knowing what she’d find.”
Tina, who is from Hillcrest, was six months old when she was diagnosed with congenital cardiac disease. “There were three holes in my heart, my tricuspid valve was missing, and I had pulmonary hypertension – a very rare disease. Other than medication to get more oxygen into my system, no treatment was available.”
Even so, Tina always grabbed life with both hands. Her mother, Bev Pendock, encouraged her to do what she could throughout her school years, stopping only if she felt tired. “I didn’t want her to feel different from other children.” Indeed, as a little girl, Tina never realised she wasn’t meant “to make it”.
But at 13, she collapsed and was rushed to the doctor. “He checked my vitals and told Mom there was nothing he could do.” Bev refused to give up and started applying CPR. “The doctor then stepped in, brought me round and rushed me to Westville Hospital where I was fitted with a pacemaker,” says Tina.
For a while it kept her going. She completed matric, travelled overseas, lived with her dad in London for a short period, then returned home to study public relations. But after a year, her condition deteriorated. A new pacemaker was fitted but Tina was never the same after that. “I had a big party for my 21st because I realised time was running out.” Nevertheless, Tina made a pact with her cousin that she’d live to be 30. “My cousin responded that life begins at 30.”
They proved to be prophetic words, for not long after her 30th birthday Tina was given a new life. “I’d been on the transplant list since I was 28. The average wait is between 18 months and two years, but after 30 months I was losing hope.”
Then on October 29, 2011 came the call she’d been waiting for. A pair of lungs and a heart had been found. With no time to lose, Flight for Life – part of the Organ Donor Foundation – chartered a plane to take Tina’s surgeon to fetch the organs. “He told me he wouldn’t do the transplant unless the lungs were perfect.”
An agonising wait ensued while Tina was assessed to » establish if the lungs would fit, and then more breath-holding until the surgeon gave his verdict late that night. “We were euphoric. On my way to theatre, I said to Mom: ‘I’ll see you in the morning’. Then I phoned Dad who was waiting at Heathrow and told him he could get on a plane.”
Next day, Tina awoke to a new sensation. “I could breathe! I felt the air hitting the bottom of my lungs and thought, ‘Wow!’”
Today, Tina is doing things she never imagined she would. She and her partner, Peter Dennison, have taken up tandem riding and have completed both the Amashova and the 47km Cape Town Cycle Tour. They plan to compete in the 109km race next year. “We ride to raise awareness of the critical need for more organ donors in South Africa.” They also ride in support of Reach for a Dream, the charity that took Tina to the Miss South Africa pageant when she was nine years old. “I’ll never forget that. Amy Kleynhans won that year – she made me realise dreams can come true.” *
Tina is a donor herself. Two valves were salvaged from her own heart, one going into the valve bank in Pretoria and the other to a six-month-old baby. One of her goals is to set up the Purple Heart Foundation that will offer support, oxygen, wheelchairs and other essential assistance for people needing organ donations and who have limited funding.
Tina is available to give inspirational talks. Her presentations follow her motto “Live while you’re alive”, and promise to be life changing.
Contact Tina at purpleheart@hotmail.co.za
Organ Donor Foundation and Flight for Life: https://www.odf.org.za/
https://www.odf.org.za/read-more-about-the-emergency-flight-fund.html
Reach for a Dream: http://www.charitysa.co.za/reach-for-a-dream.html
Captions
A NEW LIFE
Above left: A radiant Tina with her partner, Peter Dennison, mother, Bev Pendock and Chloe.
Above right: Tina, sporting a Reach for a Dream T-shirt and her medal at the end of this year’s Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Left: Tina and Peter completing the Amashova in 2014.
GOOD NEWS
Tina waiting for the all clear ahead of the operation that saved her life.