Eliza Bell - Creator of 'Transplant Chats With Eliza' Podcast

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I would say producing my podcast for the transplant community.

After having a heart transplant I identified a gap in the support for pre-transplant patients. When I went through the transplant assessment there were a lot of intimidating facts on life expectancy, hair loss, potential kidney failure and cancer, to name a few.  The professionals want to make sure you’re prepared, but there was a lack of positivity at a time where you should be feeling ecstatic that you’re probably going to be given a second chance at life. So I made a podcast to change that!  

Since I’ve started ‘Transplant Chats With Eliza’ I have released 11 episodes; gained followers from over 28 countries and had over 1,500 listens. It’s a resource that will now always be available for transplant patients to listen to. Probably far longer than my days, which is an amazing but strange thought.

Having had a transplant, I often forget about how awful life was before. I’m proud of surviving and coping all of those years running up to my transplant. All those times I was just managing to keep it together. Those times I nearly had cardiac arrests when dancing in the night club. Those times I had so little energy I had to sit in a darkened room, not seeing the sun or feeling the wind or rain on my face for weeks on end. Those time my heart palpitations were so fierce I couldn’t fall asleep. I really am proud of myself for how far I’ve come over the past few years.

What motivates you to do what you do?

The people in the online transplant community motivate me to continue with this podcast. I have had so many messages from complete strangers saying how the podcast has made them feel less lonely, given them hope for their own transplants and the realisation that life can be good after their surgery. When I started the podcast I didn’t care if I was to be a success. If it were to help just one person who was struggling though their own transplant journey, then it would be worth it.

I get messages from my guests after the interview saying how helpful sharing their story has been for them. I see myself as the communicator/connector between the listeners and the transplant patient who is sharing their story. These people share their scariest and life changing moments with me. It’s such a privilege.

Another key motivator is the fact that I just want help make the world of transplant a better place. I don’t know a lot about science, I’m not a medical professional but I do have time. Time to learn how to create a podcast for the transplant community. After being given the gift of life, all you want to do is help and give back to the people who have helped you.

What do you owe your mother?

My mother is one of the most intelligent women I know. Politics, art, debate, reading, culture, history. She seems to know a lot about most things.

She has shaped me and my way of thinking and has exposed me to these experiences from an early age. Whenever we travelled nationally or internationally, we would visit museums, art galleries, markets and churches, instead of lying by the pool. We were always learning.

On my 12th birthday, we were in Turkey.  We could have opted to go to a waterpark. But no. Mum booked a cultural excursion. We visited the town’s tiny school, a mosque, and a traditional Turkish home with a prepared local lunch in the mountains. I was shown by my mother how to understand other cultures, with respect, interest and kindness.

As a child I probably did not appreciate all of these cultural things. Fast forward to adult Eliza and these experiences have really changed my way of thinking and my views of the world.

Now, whenever I travel somewhere new, I have to visit at least one museum, a National Trust property or see some form of art…it’s a natural urge. Thanks Mum for passing that on! 

Which women inspire you and why?

The female doctors and nurses at Royal Papworth Hospital who looked after me when I was on the urgent transplant list. Not only did they look after me medically, but they also became my extended family when I was 300 miles away from home. Pre-transplant, I had a heart procedure where the whole team in the lab were female. Doctors, nurses, radiographers, theatre assistants. The energy in that room was incredible. The future is women!  

Abigail Ringer – Abigail and I had our transplants in the same week at the same hospital and we were placed in the same ward for our recovery. The first time I chatted to her she could only smile at me as having new lungs meant she couldn’t speak properly (I didn’t realise this at the time). Over the days and weeks I learnt about her story and her life. She studied medicine at Cambridge whilst managing her condition, Cystic Fibrosis. After doing her Med degree she was told she was not fit enough to do medicine. But this didn’t stop her! She then went on to become a medical lawyer. Earlier this year Abi was told her lungs were failing and there wasn’t a lot the hospital could do for her. This really hit home for her, her family and for me. But amazingly a couple months later her results came back in the green and she’s now great again. She’s such a trooper. Abi is a beautiful person inside and out and I’m inspired by the way she lives her life.  

Beyonce - This woman can just boost my mood whatever the situation. Her music also really helped me in some really dark times of my life. Her music has been played in all of the procedures I have needed over the years including: heart biopsies, lung biopsies, right heart Catheterisations and ablations (the medical teams love/hate me for this).  When I was in end of stage heart failure, just before my transplant, happiness was a non-existent feeling for me. But in those few moments when I did listen to Beyonce, I was taken to my happy place. If this music has helped me I’m sure it has helped so many others.  She is such a strong, independent woman. How could you not be inspired by her?

What are you reading?

-  Women Don’t Owe You Pretty , by Florence Given – Florence shares her advice on patriarchy, the media, self-worth, relationships and everything in between.

-  Everything Is Figureoutable – This self-help book makes your most impossible thoughts seem possible.

-  Heart, by Sandeep Jauhar – This book is the perfect mix of memoir, heart anatomy and landmarks in the world of cardiology. The heart is an organ we should all know more about. So start with this!

What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?

If I am honest, I have not been put into a position where I’ve had to face gender barriers. Because of my heart failure I only made it to university for a couple months and was too weak to work from age 19 onwards. I guess I have all that to come now I’m a fully abled adult again. Yay…

I can let you in on another barrier I have faced a lot when I was in heart failure and even now after my heart transplant. Having an invisible illness is a real thing. I had an invisible illness. I still do. But you’d never know that unless I told you or I showed you the scar on my chest.

Before my transplant I would have real issues when out and about. I looked like a skinny, blonde, 20 something. People assume you’re in the prime of your life. When in fact I had the heart of a 70 year old and was in end of stage heart failure. I’d be placed at the front of queues as priority. This meant a lot of unwanted attention for me. People would get mad at the sight of me being in front of them as I looked so normal. One time this happened on the way back from a holiday in Turkey. We were placed in the disabled queue at the airport as I could hardly walk. A woman in the normal queue started angrily shouting at me and my family for being ahead in the queue. It was a really upsetting experience. In some ways I would have rather waiting in the longer line to avoid those problems. Apparently you need to be in a wheelchair to be chronically ill.

Even post-transplant I have been accused of things which are merely side effects of my medication. I got employed by a holiday letting company who knew about my condition before they hired me. On the first day of my job my boss asked me if I knew who my donor was and kept mentioning my scar. By the time she decided to let go of me she accused me of being nervous and always having shaky hands. When in fact I only had shaky hands because I was on an incredibly high dose of steroids. Her loss anyway!

How can the world be made a better place for women?

It depends what we are talking about.  Women who live in developed countries or less developed countries?

Life could be made better for women if they were given more support to be more confident in themselves.

I think women should be educated not only about sex education, but about self-love and respect from an early age. We are taught about how sex works but we aren’t taught about being a strong individual, making yourself a priority and understanding what your feelings mean.  From personal experience and from what I’ve heard from others, we grow up not understanding how important ‘self-respect’ is and only through painful experiences do we open our eyes up to this concept. As a whole we don’t get enough respect from society, but we can respect ourselves and become stronger females through doing so.

Social media is a dangerous thing for women of all ages. Being perfect has become the new normal online and if you do not appear that way then you feel like you’re failing (or at least I have in the past). Women need to understand this and start showing more true and realistic images online. Or if you’re the person looking at these images. STOP! Delete them out of your Instagram feed. Replace them with positive body image influencers and interesting accounts. I recommend @florencegiven, she’s a great person to start off with. Sharing all things body/confidence/boundaries and mind on Instagram. Let’s take action, not selfies.

For women in underdeveloped countries, education, health care and contraception are major issues which still need to be addressed. It seems that even after years of these things being in the headlines and being supported nationally and internationally, it is an issue which will need to be supported for a long time to get to a good place for women.

The easier availability of micro-loans would be an amazing step forward for women in these types of countries too. Women are so resourceful. Whether that be with crafts or farming, it would bring so much independence and confidence to these women’s lives without the need of support from men.

Describe your perfect day?

I’d wake up early. I like to try and get a walk in by the sea and potentially grab a naughty treat at a café. I’ll try and get some work done on the podcast, whether that’s editing the podcast, social media or writing. I’ll chat to one of my friends on the phone. Chats consist of chatting about work, how amazing life is, and then bigging up each other’s master business plans. By this point another walk will be way over-due. If I’m out quite late, I’ll watch the sunset whilst I’m out and pop on a mindfulness track on my phone. Through the day I’ll have NTS radio playing in the background (a radio you should definitely check out!). Before bed I like to wind down with a book.

We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you see remembered?

I do not have one specific person. But I used to work for the RNLI as a fundraiser. One of the first jobs I did was fundraising at the Life Boat station at St Ives. I remember being shown around the station and being taken to the locker rooms where the crew’s work wear was all ready and waiting. The crew’s names were all marked above their areas. I noticed some of the plaques had women’s names on.

When you think about the RNLI and the lifeboats you automatically think the person that will be saving you is a man. And that’s not always the case. The sea is such a big part of our lives in Cornwall and the RNLI is always there if we get into trouble.

I think a statue of a lifeboat woman be amazing. It would be a great way show that the RNLI is run as much by women as it is by men. A statue like that would definitely get some second glances and would defy Cornish gender stereotypes!  

Give us a tip?

A Moomaid ice cream a day keeps the doctor away!

To find out more about the podcast you can find me at transplantchats.com.

You can follow me on Instagram @transplantchatswitheliza.

To listen to the podcast, just search ‘Transplant Chats With Eliza’ on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Music or Pocketcast!

About Eliza: Eliza Bell is 22 years old and is a patient advocate from Cornwall, Penzance.

In February 2019, Eliza was a successful DCD heart transplant recipient at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge; a life-saving event that has further propelled her interest in human-centred storytelling.

She is now using her experience to educate professionals, the public and transplant patients on what it’s really like to have a transplant and why organ donation is so desperately needed.

Eliza set up the podcast: ‘Transplant Chats With Eliza’ as a much needed support platform for other patients. The podcast shares positive stories and advice from others in the transplant community.