{"id":510970,"date":"2026-03-01T03:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510970\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:26:14","slug":"childhood-cancer-survivor-vowing-to-live-life-to-the-fullest-after-heart-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510970\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood cancer survivor vowing to live ‘life to the fullest’ after heart transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chemotherapy helped save Sienna Howkins’s life as a four-year-old, but it damaged her heart so much, she needed a heart transplant as a teenager.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, who received a donor heart a year ago, is studying to be a nurse, inspired by those who have taken care of her.<\/p>\n

She’s one of about 1,400 Australians who had a life-saving organ transplant last year after more than 500 people donated organs after death nationally, according to new DonateLife data.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins has been able to restart dancing and play netball for the first time since receiving a heart translant. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Queensland woman from Logan, south of Brisbane, was given just a 30 per cent chance of survival when she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer, in early childhood.<\/p>\n

“It was about the size of a football when they found it,” Sienna said.<\/p>\n

“It was the day after my best friend’s birthday. I stayed at her house the night. No symptom whatsoever.”<\/p>\n

But then she was taken to a doctor after jumping on a trampoline and falling over.<\/p>\n

“All of a sudden I complained of my stomach hurting and they just felt the cancer straight away because of how large it was,” Sienna recalled.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins, pictured with her siblings Ben and Chelsea, survived childhood cancer. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare and aggressive soft tissue cancer.<\/p>\n

In Sienna’s case, the tumour had developed in her left kidney and spread to her lungs.<\/p>\n

She had chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumour, and radiation over about 18 months, spending more time in hospital than out.<\/p>\n

“I still feel very lucky,” she said, when asked about those days.<\/p>\n

After cancer, Sienna lived an active life.<\/p>\n

She went to school, made friends and started dancing \u2014 jazz, tap, ballet, she loved them all.<\/p>\n

“I lived very normally,” she said.<\/p>\n

Every six months she would return to hospital for check-ups and when she was 11, she started struggling to breathe during exercise.<\/p>\n

Scans revealed her heart was “working under half of what it should”, a legacy of the chemotherapy she needed to combat the cancer.<\/p>\n

Her mum Lisa wept at the news her youngest child was sick again, but Sienna was resilient.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins’s medication she takes after her heart transplant last year. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“I’m very much: this is what it is. I’m just going to deal with it,'” she said. “I just felt like I’d been through cancer and I was fine and I felt like this was just another thing to get through.”<\/p>\n

Sienna was given medication to stabilise her heart failure and continued dancing.<\/p>\n

But in her last year of school, she started deteriorating again.<\/p>\n

“I was just tired all the time and I’m very goal driven,” she said. “It’s so hard wanting to do something and your body’s really fighting against you.<\/p>\n

“I became really sick, really quickly.”<\/p>\n

Holding on, staying positive<\/p>\n

She started a nursing degree at Griffith University and was listed on the transplant list in her second year.<\/p>\n

Five months later, she was at the Logan Hospital emergency department “not feeling great” because of her heart failure, when she got the call from The Prince Charles Hospital that a donor heart had become available.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins is approaching the one-year anniversary of her transplant. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

By that stage, although she continued to study part-time, she was spending much of her days sleeping.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t living anywhere near how I wanted to live,” Sienna said.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t function as a regular person. All of my friends were going out \u2014 as you do at the age of 19 \u2014 clubbing, and this, that, and the other, and I couldn’t.<\/p>\n

“I knew I had to hold on and just keep positive.”<\/p>\n

Before she was wheeled in for her heart transplant, she recalls members of her family crying and “being very scared”.<\/p>\n

“I’m like: I’m all right. This is a good thing. I’m going to be fine,” Sienna said.<\/p>\n

“I knew I’d be all right.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins says she felt “almost euphoric” when she woke up in hospital. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

She woke up in the intensive care unit (ICU) feeling “almost euphoric”.<\/p>\n

“I already felt better and less dizzy,” she said. “I felt great.<\/p>\n

“With the one kidney \u2026 I did have to get quite a bit of dialysis after the transplant, and I had a bit of fluid on me. But apart from that, nothing could have gone better.”<\/p>\n

As she prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of her transplant, she is looking forward to trips to Bali and New Zealand later this year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins (centre) has started dancing again since recieving a heart transplant. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

She is playing netball, has returned to dancing and plans to graduate as a nurse at the end of next year, tossing up between specialising in paediatric oncology or ICU nursing.<\/p>\n

“What my nurses meant to me and what they’ve been able to do for me is just crazy,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They just become part of your family almost.”<\/p>\n

Rather than resent her health challenges, Sienna is grateful.<\/p>\n

“I’m actually almost thankful for being unwell,” she said.<\/p>\n

“In a way that’s made me who I am. It’s definitely changed me. Growing up, I always found I’m a little bit more mature outlook-wise and life-wise than people the same age as me.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins says she is “almost grateful” for her health challenges. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Sienna was one of 16 people who received a heart transplant in Queensland last year.<\/p>\n

New DonateLife data, to be released today, shows 557 people donated organs after their deaths in Australia last year \u2014 a 6 per cent increase on 2024.<\/p>\n

They donated organs to 1,438 Australians \u2014 an 8 per cent rise in transplantations.<\/p>\n

In 2025, 53 per cent of families consented to organ donation after the death of a relative in hospital \u2014 below the peak consent rate of 60 per cent in 2018.<\/p>\n

About 35 per cent of eligible Australians are registered to be organ donors.<\/p>\n

But only about 2 per cent of people who die in Australian hospitals \u2014 or fewer than 1,700 in 2025 \u2014 meet the criteria required to be an organ donor.<\/p>\n

At the same time, about 2,000 Australians are on a waitlist for an organ transplant.<\/p>\n

Living ‘life to the fullest’ for donor\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins, 20, with her dog Daisy. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Sienna said she was determined to “live my life to the fullest for my donor”, and recently wrote to their family.<\/p>\n

“I gave them an update on what I’m doing with my life,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I asked them what their loved one liked to do and hopefully, they’ll let me know so \u2026 I can involve myself with something my donor would have liked.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sienna Howkins recently wrote to her donor’s family to update them on her life. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Other than a nursing career and some travelling, Sienna is “just letting the world decide for me” in terms of what the immediate future holds.<\/p>\n

“I finally have one again,” she said.<\/p>\n

To join the Australian organ and tissue donation registry: donatelife.gov.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chemotherapy helped save Sienna Howkins’s life as a four-year-old, but it damaged her heart so much, she needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,49856,16780,499,137,1296,256049,54215,94,701,149222,256050,23228],"class_list":["post-510970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cardiomyopathy","tag-chemotherapy","tag-childhood-cancer","tag-health","tag-heart-disease","tag-heart-recipient","tag-organ-donation","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-rhabdomyosarcoma","tag-sienna-howkins","tag-transplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}