MOST of us take our health for granted. Caught up in the treadmill that is modern living, it's no surprise that we tend to mainly concentrate on day- to-day matters.

But just imagine being in your 20s and facing a life-or-death situation - obliged to accept the grim reality that a surgeon's knife is all that stands between you and possible oblivion.

Think about this for a moment... contemplate the depressing prospect of not seeing your children grow up, or feeling the joy as their kids come running down the path asking to see gran and grandpa.

Doreen Lewis was confronted with this grim reality when her health deteriorated and she had to have a kidney transplant.

That was 28 years ago. And now, the 62-year-old is full of joy as she talks of the granddaughter she might never have seen.

Since her op, Doreen has lived life to the full. She's won a medal in a major sporting event, flown in a hot-air balloon over the Malverns and enjoyed a Mediterranean cruise.

There is a lesson in this for all of us. For this brave, indomitable woman would almost certainly have died had she not taken that leap into the unknown all those years ago.

This newspaper salutes her fortitude and rejoices in the good fortune that has allowed her to fulfil all her dreams.

Next month, she will join, at a gala dinner, 150 other people who have had kidney transplants. So raise your glass in toast, Doreen. Here's to life.