Just over 13 months ago, Mr Lee got the phone call everyone on the transplant waiting list dreams of.

At 5.30am on June 27, 2015, Mr Lee, 46, was told he had six hours to get himself to Sydney for a double-lung transplant.

It was a huge procedure which left the Tamworth man in hospital for about three months.

“I was that bad before transplant, so they told me, one more infection and she was lights out,” he said.

At 44, Mr Lee was diagnosed with alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, which is a genetic disease that causes emphysema.

“Before, I was basically housebound and I couldn't really go out in public because of the risk of catching bugs or flues,” Mr Lee said.

“I was lucky to walk 20 metres without losing breath, found it hard to shower, found it hard to eat. Just everyday, it felt like someone was choking you.”

Mr Lee has gone ahead in leaps in bounds, just 13 months on, back riding motorbikes and coaching baseball and living life “as full as possible”.

“There's other side effects that come with it, like sugar diabetes, skin cancers, and I never had to wear glasses,” he said. 

“It’s a small price to pay.”

This week marks ‘DonateLife Week’, a national campaign driving more Australians to get on the donor register. 

According to the Organ and Tissue Authority, less than one-third of Australian adults are on the register, despite the majority of people being willing to donate.

Mr Lee said while it was important for people to get online and register to become donors, he said people needed to have the conversations with their family to ensure their wishes were carried out.

Mr Lee was very thankful for the ultimate gift and said the health system was a big reason why he was still here today.

“A lot of people complain about a lot if little things,” he said. “But if I had been in any other country, I would be dead.”