A woman who underwent two liver transplants in a week at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) is urging people to sign up to the organ donor register.

Doctors told Valerie Pinfold that it had been touch and go after her body rejected the first implanted liver in February 2015 – but after a second operation in 72 hours she slowly began the road to recovery.

And now more than a year later the 49-year-old mother of two is working part-time and has become an avid campaigner to raise awareness of the desperate need for donor organs – writing a blog about her experiences, speaking to media and fundraising for the British Liver Trust.

Valerie’s problems began in 2000 when tests following a prolonged bout of diarrhoea revealed that she had the anti-mitochondrial antibody that sometimes leads to Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) – a long-term liver disease which can lead to scarring (cirrhosis) and failure of the organ.

Unfortunately for Valerie PBC was confirmed in 2007, followed by several years on various medications and a regular procession of check-ups, tests and scans until, in December 2014, she was referred to specialists at QEHB who confirmed that she urgently needed a transplant.

Barely two months later she was back in Birmingham for the operation on February 22 – and the start of a harrowing ordeal for her and her family.

“I think the operation went quite smoothly from what I have been told,” said Valerie. “But in the afternoon of the following day my family were told that the liver was failing, my arterial vein was too small and half of the liver was without blood.

“I didn’t know anything about this at the time as I was so heavily sedated, but I was put onto the super-urgent list and my family were told that another liver needed to be found for me within 72 hours.

“Just in time, on Friday, 27 February, I was taken to theatre for my second transplant. This operation was a lot more tricky.

“It took rather a long time, I had some infection from the failing first liver, I lost a lot of blood, and at a later clinic appointment I was told that they only just saved me.”

But Valerie wasn’t out of the woods after her second transplant. She developed pneumonia and spent a further six weeks at QEHB before being discharged, suffering hallucinations and nightmares in the early days due to the drugs she was on.

“I was one crazy lady,” she said. “I had such detailed dreams, which all involved the doctors and nurses looking after me, but were set in different places.

“Worse than that for my family, was that I was horrible to them. I was swearing, shouting, screaming. I was also like this with the doctors and nursing staff, refusing to have things done. I must have made it very difficult for them to do what they needed.”

Eventually Valerie was able to return to her home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and slowly began to regain her strength.

“Some days were tougher than others but I very gradually recovered,” she went on. “I know I am very lucky to still be here today. I do still get extremely tired but I am doing well.

“My surgeons are now my heroes and I thank all the doctors and nursing staff, from both critical care and the liver ward, who looked after me during my long stay at QEHB.

“On 27 February 2016 I reached the first anniversary of my second liver transplant. During that year I have been able to go to Cornbury music festival, go to Cornwall for a summer holiday and had a short break to Brighton with my daughter and various day trips out with my family.

“I have talked on two different radio stations about my experiences and been featured in local newspapers. I have gone back to work for a few hours a week and I have bought myself a red Mini and am now back on the road after not being able to drive for over a year.

“I enjoy spending this extra time I have been given with my family and doing the 'normal' things again that I haven't been able to do for such a long time.

“I am extremely grateful to my two donors and their families and always will be. Without them I quite simply would not have been here to do any of those things.

“It is important that we get as many people as we can to join the donor register. It really is a gift of life.”

Valerie and her daughters, Robyn and Leah, now work tirelessly to raise funds and promote organ donation and Valerie hopes to begin volunteering in the liver ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford – counselling patients who are suffering with their own liver illnesses.

Please see the 'Links' section below to access Valerie’s 'My Lovely Liver' blog.

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register call the number below or visit their website.

Tel: 0300 123 2323