When people see me out and about, the first thing they notice are the tubes on my face. They often double-take and I can usually hear their children asking lots of questions as I walk away. What they don’t realise though, is what an absolute miracle it is that I can walk very far at all.

When I came out of hospital last August, I could barely take a few steps without becoming extremely out of breath. My oxygen saturations could fall as low as 70% on a walk test. Using my arms at all for washing, dressing and other day to day tasks was exhausting. I was told that my oxygen saturations would never get above 90% and that I would have to stay on additional oxygen all the time until I could get a lung transplant. From looking at the scans of my lungs, you wouldn’t think that I could walk very far at all.

From the very beginning though, I have been a real mystery to the medical profession. Little by little, as I put one step in front of the other, my saturations began to slowly improve. After a month or two,they had reached 97% on one litre of oxygen at rest. After another few months, I didn’t need it at all at rest! I was able to reach 93% without any additional oxygen. This was God’s gradual work of healing in my lungs. Every time I received some prayer, he would do a little something until eventually I could achieve 96% at rest off the oxygen.

At the same time, I began to walk. I started by just walking to the end of the road but then progressed to some of the quite steep hills in my parents’ village. Mum and I would pray before I attempted them and we found that little by little, my breathlessness improved and I was able to get my breathing under control. Eventually, I could get to the top of the village, which is almost entirely on a slope. Then I progressed to the beaches and North Devon coast path, each time walking a little further and faster until I had about 6 miles under my belt. Meanwhile, I started using an exercise bike daily, starting with a very painful 1 minute on a very low setting and progressing to 10 minutes with more resistance.

I won’t pretend it wasn’t very uncomfortable for me. It was a real struggle but I really learnt the meaning of the verse, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Each morning, I gave God my lungs and asked him to breath for me. He was faithful and before long, I could start to potter around off oxygen. I got to the point where I didn’t even need to take my oxygen out with me. I just needed it on my exercise bike and for long walks. Despite everything the doctors said, I was able to start living more of a normal life.

I was reminded when I was recently in hospital again with a chest infection, just how much God has done for me. After looking at my scans, one doctor asked me how far I could walk and was stunned when I told him that I could walk several miles. One doctor before knowing me properly, started to talk about lung transplants until he realised how good my lung function is. The amazing thing is, my scans and my lung function don’t match. I believe that I am a medical mystery because God is all the time at work in my lungs. He is gradually making all things new, as I trust him and lean on him for my strength.

This last hospital visit was a bit of a setback. At first, I was disappointed after all of the progress I had made but yet again I am finding that as I walk each day with beautiful Jesus, I am making huge progress. A few weeks ago, I had one of the worst infection levels possible, with blood infection levels of 440 (normal 0-8). Today I found out that they are back down to 3 and I am getting stronger by the day. I am believing that I will be even better in the next few months than I was before. God has been, is and always will be faithful and I can put my trust in him.