Lucia Queenie Mee, from Ballycastle, died at the weekend, just months after undergoing the fourth liver transplant of her young life.
The 20-year-old was made an OBE for her work including launching the “Live Loudly, Donate Proudly” campaign.
She is survived by her parents, Rachel and David, and her sister, Alice.
Lucia had her first liver transplant in 2007 and launched the campaign in 2015 while waiting for her third transplant.
She was an Olympic torchbearer in 2012, competed as a swimmer at the 2016 Transplant Games and was awarded the BEM the following year.
In her final post on her campaign website in March, Lucia wrote that she was still in intensive care, 10 weeks after her fourth transplant.
“But this recovery has been completely different and two and a half months after the transplant I am still in intensive care.
“There is still a long way to go,” she wrote.
Lucia with her family, father David, sister Alice and mother Rachel
“The most important thing is to say thank you. Thank you again to a complete stranger who saved my life. I will always be grateful to you.”
“And I told myself to keep going. I know it doesn't always feel that way, but I'm getting better and I have to get better. I still have a lot to live for!”
“She was humble, honest and lovely, equally at ease having tea with the Queen, receiving an Order of the British Empire or being the last one to clean up after evening studies at our school,” Paul MacLean, principal of Cross and Passion College, where Lucia attended, said in a tribute video posted by Q Radio.
He added: “Lucia was an inspiring young woman who laughed in the face of adversity.”
“Lucia was so grateful for the life given to her by her organ donor and her family.
“She made it her mission in life to give back to them and live her life to the fullest, and she exemplified that by funding and promoting her own campaign.”
Donal Cunningham, a colleague of Lucia's father's at the Ballycastle Church Action Group, described her as a “very positive, brave and inspirational young person”.
Reflecting on the start of his campaign, the SDLP MP said he had spoken about the gift of organ donation being “the gift of life that helps so many people”. Mr Cunningham told Macquarie Multimedia the community was shocked to hear of Lucia's death. It had been known for some time that the fourth transplant had not gone as expected, but “it shocked us all to lose such a positive and brave person… She was such a lovely, intelligent and positive person”.
Carla McShane, Sinn Féin councillor for Ballycastle, said: “The whole community of Ballycastle, Rathlin Island and north Antrim are heartbroken by the news that Lucia passed away at the weekend, just days before her 21st birthday.”
“Lucia left a huge impact on everyone she met. She was a positive, inspirational and intelligent young person who changed ways of thinking. Lucia was an incredible person who achieved a lot in her short life.”
