Firstly I am a 68 year old retired former Managing Director of a large 300 employee, upholstered furniture manufacturing business in Long Eaton which I ran for 23 years.

I was diagnosed with Hemochromatosis around 2013, a genetic blood disorder that causes iron to collect around and damage your major organs, in my case my liver.

In 2016 I had a pulmonary embolism, and was put on blood thinners.

In 2019 my liver started to fail due to the hemochromatosis and I accumulated some ascetic fluid (Ascites) for the first time (see image). From then I had to have 10-12 litres (10-12 kilos!!) of the fluid drained from my abdomen every 2-3 weeks. I was told my liver would likely recover. It didn’t, and the next couple of years were dreadful, getting more ill by the day. I also had several endoscopic procedures dealing with oesophageal varices. Then I developed brain fog, which was terrifying, I couldn’t even work the TV remote!!

I finally had a liver transplant on February 24th 2021, at the Royal Free Hospital in London as this was during Covid and my local hospital in Birmingham had no ICU beds. My surgery had been postponed from December 2020. In London I had no visitors for the whole 23 days.

I recovered slowly from the operation, several setbacks, a heart attack January 2022, followed by a stent operation in March, the internal stitching in my abdomen started to fail and a hernia started to develop, which, by the time it was finally operated on, in October 2023, was huge.

There then followed four more endoscopic treatments because the scar tissue where my old and new bile ducts were connected had shrunk and stopped the duct working correctly. Eventually this was resolved.

In October 2022 I was back in hospital with a herniated disc in my back caused by such a long period of being relatively immobile followed by my wanting to play golf again.

In March 2023, I had another week in hospital with an infection in my (newly working) bile duct!!

And then, in October 2023 I was again in hospital, this time for another week, having hernia surgery.

A very challenging time for me and my family and isolation during the Covid period immediately post transplant was very difficult to cope with

I wrote to my donor family six months after my transplant to express my thanks for them making the incredible decision to donate which undoubtedly saved my life, and possibly other organs saved several others lives.

In summary  there have been many setbacks but at the moment all of my blood tests have been very stable for several months and I feel very well, and people keep telling me I look well which is wonderful to hear!!