Get Me to 21: A mother’s epic battle to save her daughter’s life

Imagine losing a child to something out of the world’s control. Imagine being at the forefront of driving a campaign to get South Africans on the organ donation list.

This is Gabi Lowe’s story in Get Me to 21.

The book covers the incredible journey she embarked on to save her daughter, Jenna, who had been diagnosed with a life-threatening rare disease. It’s the untold, true story of a mother’s courageous battle to help her daughter survive to age 21.

“The main message is about how we’re stronger than we think. There’s a lot of suffering around and you can face adversity,” said Lowe.

In the book, she wrote: “It’s been three long excruciating years since you died, Jen. I know I have to tell your story, but it is overwhelming.

“I am immobilised by the enormity of it and cannot seem to start. Help me, Jen. How can I ever do you justice? How can I find the courage to relive it? But how can I not?”

In 2013, Jenna was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension. At the time, there was little clinical knowledge or medicine available in South Africa to treat patients with this condition.

Jenna’s complex health issues seemed insurmountable. The need for a bilateral lung transplant, in a country where only 0.3% of the population are organ donors, intensified. Yet Gabi’s capacity for sacrifice and hope and her urgency to save her daughter’s life inspired her to achieve what seemed to be impossible.

Jenna Lowe.

To write the story, Lowe relied on taking breaks. She didn’t write any of the book at home, but rather at other places, like a friend’s holiday home or somewhere close to nature.

“I needed nature to equalise what I was writing,” she said.

It took nine months to finish the book which describes how the Lowe family’s tireless campaign to raise awareness of pulmonary hypertension, organ transplants and rare diseases in South Africa became a fight, not only for Jenna, but for all South Africans.

Get Me to 21 presents vulnerability not as a weakness, but as the fastest path to courage. The book reveals an ordinary mother’s challenges and traumas and times of weakness, despair and pain.

Gabi Lowe.

Lowe’s words are imbued with the humility and wisdom that come from living and learning.

The book also pushes the point that South Africans should sign up to be organ donors because, presently, many organs go to waste.

“I think Jenna’s legacy is that she’s made a difference to organ donation, in people becoming donors,” said Lowe.

Info

• Get Me to 21 is on sale at all top book retailers around the country, including Exclusive Books, Bargain Books and PNA.
• The book is also available online at jennalowe.org and amazon.com

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.