JUST over a year ago mother-of-four Maggie Hesketh was recovering after undergoing a mammoth 10-and-a-half hour transplant operation in London to receive a new liver.
The 65-year-old, who is a qualified midwife, had seen her health spiral downward in the course of just a few months before she was put on the organ transplant list as a last ditch attempt to save her life.
The grandmother, who had been in good health, only learned that she was ill when she was preparing for a family wedding in the summer of 2004.
Having gone to the doctor to ask for help with a weight loss programme, a blood test carried out during the process later showed she had cirrhosis of the liver.
Usually associated with being caused by chronic alcoholism, in Mrs Hesketh's case it was an auto-immune form meaning her own immune system had begun attacking her liver causing life-threatening cirrhosis.
After going private where her diagnosis was confirmed, she was then added to the NHS list for treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH).
Aged 50 at the time she admits her first thought was that she was "dying" but she was put on a yearly surveillance programme, so she could return annually to the RVH to allow them to monitor the scarring.
Just two years after her diagnosis, and in a bid to get on with life, she made a return to studies and trained at QUB to become a midwife. Graduating at the age of 55, she was told she was the oldest student to ever study midwifery at QUB.
It was second degree for the mother-of-four who as a 37-year-old also studied Social Anthropology and Sociology at the same college.
Despite her attempts to carry on a normal life over time the annual hospital checks found that changes to her liver and while her medication was changed to counter that, by May 2015 she began to go downhill and suffered a fall outside her son’s house.
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Tests found that the liver was not fully working, and unable to drain toxins from her body, meant Maggie began suffering multiple infections, which affected her chest, urine and eye.
It was then found she had hepatic encephalopathy, which meant she was suffering from changes to her brain due to advanced liver disease. Symptoms can include confusion, forgetfulness, personality and mood changes and seizures.
Over the course of the next two years, Mrs Hesketh continued to contract numerous infections and underwent a number of surgeries.
Around autumn 2017, doctors began speaking about a transplant but it was during an appointment at the RVH, she was told by her medical team to “put her affairs in order".
"He just said `I think it’s time now to go home and discuss your wishes with your family. You are most likely going to die while waiting for a liver’," she said.
"It was awful. I was saying `What am I going to do? I’ll leave my kids and my grandchildren and I don’t want to do that".
In April 2018, she went to King’s College Hospital in London to undergo an assessment to see if she was suitable to go on to the transplant list and she was.
However, she was told the wait would be at least 18 months to two years and it was unlikely she would make it.
But, on May 6, 2018, just 16 days after officially joining the transplant list, she got word to say liver had become available and was asked to quickly make her way to King’s College Hospital.
Accompanied by her daughter, Mairead, who works as a ward sister at the Mater Hospital, they dashed to Belfast International Airport, where a private plane was waiting for them.
She was then blue-lighted by ambulance to the hospital and the following morning, walked with her medical team to the operating theatre at 6am for the transplant.
"I said if I ever got the call, I would not obsess over the liver, it's not always a match, you could be on the operating table and it not be a match," she said
"I was shaking. I looked at it as a potential liver. I felt sick".
Mrs Hesketh said she felt that someone had "carried me" to the theatre for the transplant "because I didn’t do it on my own”.
After a 10-and-a-half-hour operation, Mrs Hesketh was transferred to the intensive care unit where she celebrated her 64th birthday on May 10. A week later she was transferred by air ambulance back to hospital in Belfast before final discharged on June 17.
Now a year post-transplant, Mrs Hesketh said she is living life to the full.
Just five weeks ago, the grandmother welcomed twin grand-daughters, Èabha and Ròise Fitzpatrick, who she never would have met without the transplant.
She said she hoped people would fully grasp what signing up to be an organ donor really means.
"It’s the difference between living and dying. My outlook was very bleak," she said.
"I remember after my transplant starting to make plans, for the grandchildren and planning to be able to be with the kids and being independent again. It gave me back my personality and it gave my children back their mummy".
She added: "It was a big adjustment. You’re dealing with part of someone else inside you.
"Every time you open your eyes, you think `They didn’t give their life for me but they give me life'. To me, I felt and still do feel as if I had some kind of spiritual awakening. Between the surgery and God, it is just a miracle.
"This man or his family decided to give me the chance to live or a renewal of life. To me, he’s the hero, he’s my hero".
Mrs Hesketh, who is herself now also an organ donor, said she believes people should sign up for donation.
"Don't take your organs to heaven because heaven knows they are needed here," she said.
"I feel humble that somebody who I never met or who never met me has given me a new lease of life".
In a bid to give back to those who helped her, Mrs Hesketh and her family area organising a fundraising night at Fortwilliam Golf Club on Friday, June 21 at 8pm. All funds raised will be donated to the Royal Victoria Hospital Liver Support Group. Donations to the cause and further information about the event can be found at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Mairead-Fitzpatrick
