Maureen had always been active and healthy, which is why in 2008, it was a surprise for her to be inexplicably tired after a short workout. Soon it was difficult to climb stairs at work Maureen consulted her doctor. Hearing crackling sounds in her lungs, he sent Maureen to a pulmonologist who performed testing over the course of the next year, with no forthcoming answers. Ultimately, Maureen was diagnosed by doctors at Tampa General Hospital with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition which causes irreparable scarring on the lungs and for Maureen, meant needing a lung transplant.

Maureen waited nearly nine years until she received new lungs in 2017. Maureen is more active than ever, and with her family by her side, her husband of 30 years, two daughters, and as she calls him, the crown jewel, her son Maureen enjoys giving back as a LifeLink volunteer, and volunteers with Metropolitan Ministries, the American Cancer Society, and with adaptive sports, such as archery, with her son who has spina bifida. Maureen credits her faith, family, and friends, and the medical professionals who performed her transplant, but most importantly she knows it was the generosity of her donor’s family that gave her renewed life.