In 2021 I was diagnosed with multiple tumours as a result of my long standing Autoimmune disease Primary Biliary Cholangitis diagnosed in 2008.

I had been for annual cancer screening at the University Hospital of North Midlands who picked up one, then later two, and ultimately four tumours. I was put on the transplant list in December 2021 and received my Liver in the Spring of 2022. I was never symptomatic or ill during my entire experience of the chronic liver disease, which made it harder to understand why a transplant was needed. That was until a consultant said that my liver was a ‘tumour making machine’ and there was no alternative, so thankfully I am here to tell the story.

In my case the transplant was unique and the first in the UK as my liver came from a Liver Transplant patient who had succumbed to a brain haemorrhage.

We are 11 in total in the world.  I was more predisposed to rejection which then happened in August 2022 but corrected with IV prednisolone.

Transplantation is not a quick fix. There are challenges with the medication and as a side effect we are more pre-disposed to other conditions such as skin cancer and diabetes. But being alerted, we take precautions to prevent that. April 3^rd 2025 I celebrate my second ‘Liverversary’ but find it hard to be happy as I know families are grieving for the loss of their loved one that day too.

I have met some amazing people irrespective of their reasons for transplantation and all I can say is that each day we thank our donors and their families and live our lives to the full.  The donors now live through us and we have been given a second chance. We hold the torch high by spreading the message of letting family members know your wishes to be an organ donor. Even if we are on the Organ Donor Register, family consent is still key.

In 2023, 1500 potential organ donors did not happen as families were unable to make the decisions to let the donation happen.

This is a conversation that is needed and in the knowledge that a loved one was happy not to waste his or her organs, what better way than to offer the gift of life to others?