Jacqueline Dowding
“I do get sea sick,” laughs sailor Jacqueline Dowding. “Sometimes!”
It’s not the kind of remark you’d expect to hear from someone who lives in a boat and has spent the last 20 years sailing round the globe. But then Jacqueline isn’t your average woman.
In 1989, aged 29 and two years after she had a kidney transplant, she took part in one of sailing's most gruelling battles: the Fastnet yacht race.
“We were an all-transplant crew,” remembers Jacqueline, 46, of her adventure along the English Channel and Irish Sea. “Four of us had transplants, and there was also a doctor and a nurse. We finished in the top five in our section. It was a wonderful achievement.”
Jacqueline was diagnosed with a hereditary kidney disorder by chance, after donating blood.
“My mother had kidney failure and my brother had a kidney transplant too,” she explained. “It’s a hereditary condition, which has a slow progression; the kidney just gets smaller and smaller.
“It was only when I donated blood and nurses told me my levels of haemoglobin were low (haemoglobin carries oxygen in the blood to cells) that I knew I had a problem.
“I have a rare tissue type, but luckily I was only on the waiting list for about 18 months.
“Facing the unknown, and not knowing what direction your life is going to take, certainly makes you want to do more and get the most you can out of every day,” says Jacqueline, aboard her 30-year-old yacht in the bustling Brighton Marina.
The picture-postcard harbour is home to some 1,000 yachts, many permanent homes just like Jacqueline’s. She has lived there for the past 18 months, having sailed to the south coast from Sweden where she lived for a number of years.
Jacqueline has spent most of her life at sea; it’s in her blood and has been ever since she first crawled aboard her father’s wooden dingy on the Essex coastline where she grew up.
“Being on top of the waves is magical; you feel so free. I have sailed round the world and seen so many wonderful places because of the ocean. It’s my life,” she smiles.
Since her transplant Jacqueline has worked hard encouraging more people to join the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR). This year she plans to enter the Fastnet yacht race once again – 17 years on since she last braved the waves - to raise awareness of the ODR.
“Having a transplant not only gave me a new zest for life, but made me appreciate just how important organ donation is,” says Jacqueline, who works as a sailing instructor and voluntarily as a sea safety advisor with the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.
“I wouldn’t have done half the things I have if it hadn’t been for the fact I had a transplant. It’s the reason I have all my wonderful memories and have done so much in life.
“I really want to help encourage more people to join the Organ Donor Register by entering this year’s Fastnet race, but we need more sponsors to help us fund a yacht to enter the event.
Latest news is available on Jacqueline's website: www.saltdeanweb.co.uk/dowding
