Mum's joy at wedding after liver transplant

9:14am Wednesday 21st February 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

WHEN Jane Thomas watched her daughter walk down the aisle, it was an incredible moment for the proud mum - one she would not have been alive to see had it not been for a life-saving liver transplant.

Two years earlier, doctors had given Mrs Thomas the news that, after suffering from a chronic liver disease for seven years, she was being put on the transplant waiting list.

Organ donation really is the gift of life. Having this transplant has allowed me and my family to share experiences we never thought that we would have

Jane Thomas

Thankfully, she subsequently received a transplant - and with her new lease of life, Mrs Thomas was there on September 23 last year to see her daughter Zoey, 23, marry fiancé Neil Butt, 27, at St Thomas of Canterbury church, in Worting Road, Basingstoke.

"Zoey's wedding was an emotional day for me," said 48-year-old Mrs Thomas. "It is only now, looking back to before I had the transplant, that I realise how ill I'd been and how lucky I am to be here."

She added: "I was so shocked when I was first told that I needed a transplant, as I'd never thought it would get to that stage. It was not even in my mind."

Mrs Thomas, of Kenilworth Road, Basingstoke, was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), a progressive auto-immune condition of the liver which has no known cure, in 1996.

While she had been controlling the condition with medication - it is quite rare for sufferers of PBC to need a transplant - her condition unfortunately progressed to the more aggressive stage.

When her name was added to the transplant list, Mrs Thomas was lucky as after only six weeks she received a liver transplant at Kings College Hospital, London.

She said: "I was really surprised when I got the call for the transplant because nobody could tell me how long I'd have to wait and I was expecting it to be longer.

"By that time I was just lying on the settee all day. I had no life at all because I was so ill."

She added: "I got the call just before my daughter's 21st birthday. We had organised to go out for a meal with some of her friends, but she had to cancel it. I was feeling quite emotional and I got upset that she couldn't go, but she said to me mum, I've got my birthday present - I've got my mum back'."

Mrs Thomas recovered well from the transplant, and although she will always have PBC, she is now able to control it with medication.

Speaking about The Gazette's Sign Up Campaign - which aims to get more people in the Basingstoke area to put their names on the NHS Organ Donor Register - Mrs Thomas said: "Organ donation really is the gift of life. Having this transplant has allowed me and my family to share experiences we never thought that we would have."

Mrs Thomas is now a regional volunteer for Hampshire for the PBC Foundation and is able to offer support to other people who might have to go through a transplant.

For more details about PBC, visit www.pbcfoundation.org.uk

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register, contact the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400, visit www.uktransplant.org.uk or pick up a leaflet from your local GP surgery.