The walk Bolton mum thought she would never male (From The Bolton News)

The walk Bolton mum thought she would never male

9:12am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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WHEN Carol Beckett took her daughter to school for the first time, it was a day she thought she would never live to see.

Two years earlier, when little Gracie was just a toddler, her mum was told she had just 12 months to live.

Carol was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and needed a liver transplant if she was to have any hope of survival.

She was put on a waiting list but told she may have to wait up to a year before a match was found.

Carol, aged 39, said: “The odds were stacked against me. But when I was on the waiting list, the one thing I wanted to do was to walk my daughter to school on her first day.”

Carol’s brother, Stephen Wood, volunteered to donate part of his own liver to his younger sister.

It was a relatively new procedure at the time, but experts at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, which specialises in liver transplants, approved the operation.

In January, 2008, Stephen underwent a six-hour operation, risking his own life to save his sister.

Doctors said there was a one-in-400 chance he might not survive. Carol then spent 10 hours on the operating table, as surgeons worked to transplant a section of her brother’s liver into hers.

Carol said: “I was in a very difficult position. I didn’t want my brother to risk his life but I also wanted to see my daughter grow up.

“What my brother did, words can’t express how much I appreciate it.

“There were other people on the same ward as me waiting for transplants, and they didn’t always get them in time. I am extremely lucky.”

The cancer was only in her liver and had not spread, meaning a transplant could save her life.

NICE — the National Institute for Clinical Excellence — had only approved this type of procedure a year earlier and Carol was only the third patient at the hospital to have the procedure.

Carol was given the all-clear about two months later.

“It was just absolutely amazing news,” she said. “I quit my job because I wanted to spend more time with my daughter. You never know what is going to happen.”

In September, 2009, Carol and Gracie set off on that first walk to school. It was a moment Carol never thought she would experience — and something she will never forget.

She now works as an information analyst at the Royal Bolton Hospital and Gracie is six months into her first year at school.

Carol also volunteers for Live Life then Give Life — a charity which urges people to sign up to the organ donor register. To sign up to the organ donor register, go to organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 23 23.

l Next month, Carol’s sister, Sue, is running the London Marathon to raise funds for Live Life then Give Life. To sponsor Sue, go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/suestrang