Mum supports cause that saved daughter's life (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Mum supports cause that saved daughter's life

3:34pm Saturday 23rd June 2007 in Swindon By Raeanne Nightingale

As National Transplant Week approaches a Swindon mum whose daughter was saved by a new liver is linking with Children's Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF) to urge people to join the organ donor register.

As a baby Emma Browne's daughter Ellie, 4, was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a life threatening liver disease in which the bile ducts become progressively blocked leading to irreversible liver damage.

A corrective operation was scheduled but this was aborted by specialists after two hours when it became clear that Ellie's liver was so severely damaged that a liver transplant was her only hope.

She was put on the transplant waiting list and to Emma and husband Tom's immense relief, a donor organ was found before it was too late.

Ellie, then five months old, underwent the life-saving operation and recovered well.

The youngster, who lives with her family in Ferndale and now attends Ferndale preschool, has continued to make steady progress since the operation, although she will need to take medication for life to help prevent her from rejecting her new liver and regular hospital check-ups have become a way of life.

Since Ellie's diagnosis, Emma, a house-wife and carer to Ellie and sister Sophie, 8, has become a keen supporter of CLDF; the only organisation in the UK dedicated to fighting childhood liver disease.

The charity gives support to families like Emma's whose children are diagnosed with liver conditions - two children are diagnosed with a liver disease every day in the UK - and also funds vital research into the causes of the 100 different liver diseases which can affect children.

To coincide with National Transplant Week which takes place from July 7-14, Emma is helping CLDF highlight the urgent need for more people to sign up to the NHS organ donor register.

She said: "Ellie wouldn't be here today without the generosity of a very special family and their gift transformed all our lives, not just Ellie's.

"We were devastated when Ellie was diagnosed with biliary atresia and to watch her go downhill and not be able to do anything was horrendous.

"Thankfully Ellie didn't have to wait too long on the transplant list but we know that not all families are so lucky.

"I hope that sharing our story we will encourage people to join the register and to make their wishes known to their family."

Catherine Arkley, chief executive of Children's Liver Disease Foundation, added: "It is fantastic to see how well Ellie has progressed since her transplant and her story really hits home what a difference a transplant can make to a family.

"However tragically there continues to be a desperate lack of donor organs and children do die whilst waiting for a transplant.

"The simple fact is that you are more likely to be an organ recipient than an organ donor and CLDF believes if you're prepared to accept a donor organ then you should be prepared to be an organ donor."

As of June 10, 29 children under the age of 18 in the UK were waiting for a liver transplant.

People can sign up to the organ donor register via CLDF's website at www.childliverdisease.org