Hey there, everybody.  Wow!!! I know it's been a long time since my last update...please forgive me.  But, I've finally been able to do so many more things than just simply sit around and type on a computer like I had been doing for the last few years.  I am doing GREAT and I am able to enjoy life once again.

I received my transplant at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, VA (just outside Washington, DC) on March 5, 2011 (a little less than 5 months ago).  The operation was a success up until the point where I developed an infection in my lungs about 2 weeks post transplant and the docs had to go back in to clean that all up.  They did and I slowly got better.  I was in the hospital about 7 weeks total.  We definitely made some very good friends while I was there.  The docs, the nurses, everybody in there was absolutly wonderful.  While I was in the hospital, I met a guy by the name of George Ortega, who received the heart from the same donor from whom I received the lungs.  George and I have continued to keep in touch over the months and he too is doing well...thank God!!

This past weekend I was blessed by being able to meet the donor's family.  My angel was a young 19 year old man who passed away way to soon in his life.  His family misses him greatly and love him very, very much.  They are also very proud of him, Jami, for being an organ donor and saving the lives of 4 people.  If you go onto facebook and search RIP Jami Interiano, you can get a little glimpse into his life.  He definitely loved life, his family and his friends.  I am proud, as is George and the other recipients to have Jami living on within our bodies.  Thank you so much to the Interiano family and to Jami for making the decision years ago to become an organ donor.  You saved my life and I will be forever grateful.

Well, like I said, I am doing well.  Still a little pain in the sternum area where they wired me back together, but other than that I am breathing like nothing was ever wrong with me.  I know as soon as I woke up from my surgery that I was going to be fine, and I am.  I love it!!!!!!   

I want you all to know that I am indebted to you forever for your prayers and your support during a very difficult time in my life.  I will never forget all of the kind words of inspiration, the cards that I received over the years, the new friends that I have now...none of it.  I thank you so much for all of it.  I feel undeserving of all the goodness that has come my way. Your love and inspiration made it all worth fighting for and I am proud to have gotten to know many of you.  I love you all very much, as does my family.  We literally could not have done this without you and God.  I am now paying forward all of the good things that I received just like I had promised myself I would do when I was sick.  It's a blast!!

I'll try to keep this blog a little bit more up-to-date in the future.  I am on facebook a lot.  I know there are a lot of Chuck Campbells out there, but if you search New Lungs for Chuck on facebook, you can probably find me.  I'd love to talk to any of you any time!!

Much love, Semper Fi, and Thank you all so very much,

Chuck

I have gotten a few requests for info on the raffle so that people can correctly file their taxes.  I would be happy to provide whatever info you want, but from what I have been told, even though the raffle was for charity, unfortunately the purchase of raffle tickets is not deductible.  It's looked upon as the same as buying a lotto ticket.  The foundation's name, however, is the Salisbury Area Chamber Foundation and they are located in Salisbury, Maryland.  If you need any further info, please let me know.  Thank you for your support and God bless.

Hello all.  It's been a while since I've made any entries...so long, in fact, I forgot my password.  Finally remembered where I had written it down, thank God, and here I am...

My wife, Vicki, has been telling me for some time now that I should say something on here.  The only problem was that there wasn't really anything new to say and I didn't want it to seem like I was just saying something to hear myself talk (or type, or whatever...you know what I mean).  The truth is that for the last few months I've just been waiting on the hospital to call to tell me the good news that they've found a good set of donor lungs.  I gotta admit though, this has really been hard...no control over this at all...just waiting.  Today a very good friend of mine, Chris, messaged me on Facebook and told me that he often gets asked about me and how I'm doing.  So..............

I do want to say THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for your thoughts and your prayers!!  My family and I have gotten our strength from friends, family and total strangers who have inspired us with kind words of encouragment and reminders that God does things in His time, not in ours.  I know that this will all turn out well and I will soon be ready to, as Chris said today, once again take on the world.   So again, thank you very much!

I'll try to update this blog a little more frequently, at least enough to keep my password fresh in my mind...lol.  Hopefully, I'll have some really good news for you very soon.  Until then...thank you and much love.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Rumor has it that one of the episodes of The Bonnie Hunt Show that originally aired back in the Spring is going to rerun today.  Hope you'll get a chance to watch.  Although our raffle has already taken place, we are still doing our fundraising for the post-transplant expenses.  If you'd like to help, you can send your donations to the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF), 150 N. Radnor Chester Rd, Suite F-120, Radnor, PA 19087.  If you send a check, please make it payable to NTAF and simply write "in honor of Chuck Campbell" on the memo line. Thank you very much for reading my blog.  God bless.

Well, it appears that all of the hard work, the prayers, the thousands of people who helped financially...everything, it's finally paid off.  As of about noon today, I was officially added to the UNOS double lung transplant waiting list at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia.  I want to thank all of you who have helped in one way or another!!  I love you all and will never be able to adequately express how thankful I am for each and every one of you.  I'll never forget what you have done for me.

Hi, everybody!!  Today I woke up to a mass of new friend requests on facebook and a ton of emails, all of which referenced our appearance on The Bonnie Hunt Show.  What a wonderful surprise!!!  Thank you all who have written.  Unfortunately, today's show was a repeat.  The original airing of that show was back at the begining of March, before the drawing actually took place.  :(  We actually drew the winning ticket on another episode of Bonnie's show which aired on March 31st.  The winner was a nurse who already lived in Florida.  I do thank you all very much for your kind words, though.

Just so you know, the raffle was a huge success and we raised most of the money needed for the transplant itself.  However, we will continue our fundraising efforts in order to raise money for the very expensive post-transplant medications and care.  So, anything you can do will be greatly appreciated and much needed.  If you would still like to make a donation, even though the raffle has already taken place, you can go to www.ntafund.org/find-a-patient/profile/index.cfm/patient/E7315AC1-DACB-FB82-741C9F977BA3B88D.  Again, thank you all very much and God bless.

Sincerely thankful,

Chuck Campbell

NEW LUNGS 4 CHUCK GOLF TOURNAMENT

Please join us for the New Lungs 4 Chuck Golf Tournament to benefit Chuck Campbell on July 15, 2010. Chuck is in need of a double lung transplant and is holding this golf tournament in order to help pay for post-transplant medications which he will have to take for the rest of his life.

We will have a great day of golf at the beautiful Heritage Shores Club in Bridgeville, DE (www.heritageshoresclub.com). The event will include a 4-person scramble, practice range, lunch and dinner, complimentary beer, skills contests, 2 mulligans and 1 future complimentary round of golf at Heritage Shores! All Included in registration fee!

$400 dollars in Ruddos Golf gift cards for contest winners!Here's the breakdown: $100 for putting contest winner, $50 male/female for closests to holes contest (2 holes), $50 each plus a 52 degree wedge male/female for longest drive!

One player from each team will participate in a 125 yard shoot-out at the end of the day. The person participating will have won a hand of poker at the turn. The player closest to the hole will win a LG 42" plasma tv donated by SEARS of Seaford! We hope this will be a fun way to end the day.

The Rookery, The Links at Lighthouse Sound, River Run Golf Club, Ocean City Golf Club, and Man O' War at GlenRiddle Golf Club have all generously donated rounds of golf to this tournament.

Hurst Contracting LLC. is proudly sponsoring the practice putting green.

Just announced!!! Pohanka of Salisbury is sponsoring a Hole In One Contest! A player making a hole in one on the designated hole will win a car! Pohanka will have a car on display at the course on July 15th.

Special Offer: Included with your online registration is a 1-year subscription to Golf Digest (a $10 value). Click here for offer and refund details. Register now and remember to invite your friends to play. Just click on "Tell a Friend" and you can send them a link to this site automatically. There will also be a silent auction taking place during the day. Thank you for your support!

Any questions can be directed to Jim Lingo at 302-228-2041 or contact Jim at jjunkpar3@aol.com.

To register, go to www.golfdigestplanner.com/14887-newlungs4chuck.

Hello, all.

First of all, I want to thank Michael Giordano for hooking me up with this site.  Thanks for all your hard work.

I assume that most of you know by now that the raffle we held for the condo and car has already taken place.  We drew the winning ticket on the Bonnie Hunt Show back at the end of March.  The lucky winner was a nurse by the name of Tammy Ayers.  Tammy actually already lived down in Florida and was extremely excited about the whole thing...duh...who wouldn't be.  Anyhow, the raffle is over (thank God) and now we're on to the rest of this journey.  I do want to thank Sandy Fitzgerald, the owner of Pohanka Automotive in Salisbury, MD.  It was Sandy's condo that we raffled off and this whole thing would never have happened if it wasn't for her love and generosity.  She's the best boss I could have ever asked for and a great friend that I will always be indebted to.  Also, Chris Hagel definitely deserves another thank you.  Chris is the one that worked so hard for so many hours for a solid year to make sure that the raffle was successful.  It was his hard work and determination that made it the success that it was.  Chris used every connection he had to get us local exposure and the national exposure that was vital to the whole thing.  Thanks, Chris.  Great job!!  There are so many people that helped make the drawing such a tremendous success.  Other than Sandy and Chris...Robin Hagel, Lisa Swan, Brad Bellacicco, all the volunteers that helped stuff envelopes, the Salisbury Area Chamber Foundation, many of the employees of Pohanka Automotive, all my friends who helped sell tickets...literally thousands of people who spent their hard-earned money to buy a ticket or ticketS...so many people it's impossible to thank you all, but you know who are!!  Thank you so much.  Two more people though that I really want to point out.  The first is Bonnie Hunt.  Without her compassion and her relentless promotion of my story, the raffle would not have been nearly as successful as it ended up being.  I know I've said it before; and she is definitely not looking for more thanks, but I will be forever greatful to her.  Bonnie, you have a fan, and more importantly, a friend for life.  Thank you so much.  Without the exposure that we got on her show, I probably would have never made it.  Because of her, my story reached the right person, who has promised to donate the money we will need to make sure that the transplant happens ASAP.  We are simply referring to that person as our anonymous angel.  Thank you so much, whoever you may be. You have literally saved my life.  Lastly I need to thank my wife, Vicki.  Without her support, love, encouragement, compassion, wisdom and faith I never would have been able to make it through all this.  She has held our family together through all this and has been the strongest I've ever seen her be.  I love you, baby!  Now and forever.

Okay...now for the latest...I stopped working at Pohanka back at the end of April.  It was a very hard decision to make, but I just couldn't do it any more.  It was just something that I knew would happen sooner or later, but I just didn't want to leave.  I miss working there so much!!  But since I left, I've made a lot of progress.  I am now dealing with Inova Hospital, up in Fairfax, VA.  I dumped Temple University Hospital after a while ago due to the total unprofessional way they were handling, or NOT handling my case.  Anyhow, that turned out to be another blessing in disguise.  Ever since our first contact with the staff at Inova, I have been very pleased with the professionalism and the respect that they have shown us.  What a great group of people!!

Over the last couple of months, I've gone through pretty much every medical test known to man.  I've gone through what the docs refer to as the "million dollar physical."  Thankfully, I've passed all the exams with flying colors.  It's funny...you have to be sick enough to where a transplant is the only option left, but not so sick that you won't make it through successfully.  And, since the lung issues are the only issues that I have, I made it through.  After going through all of the tests and meeting with a bunch of different people indivdually, they all got together, compared notes and actually voted on what to do with me.  They could have decided on one of three possibilities...yes, transplant...no, don't transplant...or transplant, but not just yet.  Last Thursday they had their meeting, voted and decided yes, transplant.  I received the phone call that afternoon and was given the news that I've been waiting to hear for a few years now.  THANK GOD!!

So, the next step is to go back up to Inova tomorrow so I can sign the final paperwork, and get the final amount finalized.  Once that's done, I get placed on the transplant waiting list.  So, I figure I should be on the waiting list within a week or so at the most.  Then, it's just a matter of time until a matching donor is found.  Unfortunately, the nature of a double lung transplant cannot be scheduled in advance.  So I just have to be ready to go when Inova calls me.  And, one thing I can tell you for sure...I WILL BE!!

So, that's where I am as of today.  Now that I know how to use this blog, I'll try to update it often, as I know that there are a lot of people whom I've met over the last year or so that want to know what's happening.  Thank you for caring.  God bless you all and take care.  We'll talk again soon.

Your friend, Chuck

Hello and welcome to my Blog. We have set up this Blog so I can update everyone on my progress now that the auction has passed.