Bobbie Wilson

After Bobbie Wilson underwent a successful double-lung transplant, she would still try to adjust an oxygen tube or check for the tank that had been trailing her for more than a year.

"It was amazing to be able to breathe without exhaustion," she says. "It still is."

Although diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was an infant, Bobbie felt healthy until her mid-20s. "I did sports and all the normal stuff," she says. "I didn't grow up feeling sick."

But then Bobbie's health began to deteriorate. She became easily winded. She got lung infections. She was hospitalized more often. By age 30, she was relying on supplemental oxygen, and her disease began to take its toll.

"I had to quit working," she says. "I didn't go out much. I once left a wedding reception because I'd run out of oxygen and couldn't breathe."

Bobbie's doctors recommended that she get her name on a transplant list. And, because she was a Walmart employee and 100 percent of her transplant and related expenses were covered at Mayo Clinic, Bobbie soon turned to specialists in Rochester, Minn., for help.

At Mayo Clinic, doctors performed an eight-hour double-lung transplant. And the results of that surgery still surprise her. "When I did my lung capacity tests for the first time, I cried because it was so effortless," she says.

After 11 days in the hospital, Bobbie's health care team coordinated her recovery in Rochester for the next three months and then continued to provide support as she went home to her family.

Bobbie is now back to work and actively enjoying life again. And she's grateful for the care and the generous gift that saved her life. Without them, "I probably wouldn't be here," she says. "Being sick has taught me a lot about being appreciative."