He was the anaesthetist who assisted the recovery of lungs from the donor and personally couriered them to Auckland.

But he didn't know who the lucky recipient of those lungs would be – not until he saw the story of Tauranga's Nikki Wilson in the newspaper a couple of days later.

Nikki Wilson is up and walking every day after her lung transplant.

Twenty-five-year-old Nikki, who had been living with cystic fibrosis all her life, had been given new lungs in an eight and a half hour transplant operation at Auckland Hospital.

The anaesthetist must have put two and two together, says Nikki.

'He contacted me and wanted to meet me,” says Nikki, now up and about, and well on the mend in a ward at the hospital.

'It just seemed important to him to see where the lungs were going, who the recipient was. And it was special for me too. He was a lovely man. It was a lovely time.”

Nikki had been on the active transplant list for more than a year.

She got a call from the hospital ten days ago.

'It was my lungs. I was scared but excited. And teary.”

Nikki and her sister Kristie both had incurable cystic fibrosis – a seriously debilitating genetic respiratory and digestive disease.

It clogs the lungs with a thick mucus causing shortness of breath, chronic coughing and repeated chest infections. Not for Nikki though, not anymore.

'There's no coughing. I don't cough anymore” she laughs. ”That's very exciting.”

Life itself is very exciting for Nikki right now.

'I just look forward to waking up in my own bed, not feeling yuck every morning and being able to do whatever I want.”

That includes walks and playing with five-year-old daughter Skyla.

Nikki will have another two or three weeks in the hospital ward before moving to Hearty Towers for two or three months to ensure her ongoing medication is on track.

Hearty Towers is an accommodation facility for heart and lung transplant recipients at Greenlane Hospital.

And if there are any hiccups then she is close to help.

When SunLive spoke to Nikki this week she had just jumped out of the shower – her first for a week.

'She's looking great,” says husband Brandan.

'These last few days have been a blur and Nikki has been in quite a lot of pain. But she's done really well, a lot better than expected.”

All her breathing tubes have been removed and she only has a drain line remaining.

Nervous and excited before the operation, Nikki is now up and walking every day.

'And she is telling me all the things she wants to do and try when she gets out,” says Brandan.

Nikki and Kristie have become familiar faces in Tauranga with their 65 days of good deeds – they called it '65 roses” because its sounds like cystic fibrosis when said fast.

Their deeds included cakes for the hospital, money on parking and vending machines and vouchers in library books – one every day for 65 days.

They came up with the idea to raise awareness about cystic fibrosis.

And Nikki's dramatic operation couldn't have come at a more opportune time for Cystic Fibrosis New Zealand.

It's right in the middle of its Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Week promotion, which runs through to Sunday.

Consummate timing Nikki.