So far…

17 months ago, my life changed forever when I experienced sudden and unexpected acute liver failure. Within the space of one week, I went from being a fit and healthy person who cycled 20 miles a day, to being placed in an induced coma with hours to live. (See below for ‘My Full Transplant Journey’).

Thanks to my donor and the incredible Kings College Hospital (KCH) Liver Transplant Team, I received a life saving transplant and survived. Now I have an opportunity to give back to the service which granted me my gift of continued life.

During this past year of recovery, I have experienced and learnt a lot; both personally and professionally and I am privileged that my work as a mental health professional has offered me the unique opportunity to view the journey of a transplant patient through the lens of my profession. I have experienced first hand how the liver transplant process impacts on all areas of human experience and how vital it is that all of these areas (physical-emotional-psychological) are addressed simultaneously in order for patients have the best opportunity to heal and live happy, healthy lives. I am thankful that the medical professionals who dealt with my care did their best to take this approach. I am also thankful that my own my experiences have shown me that more can be done to support this approach and I have clearly seen the potential for new care possibilities.

And so, simultaneously with my own path to recovery I have been developing a research project, which harnesses emotional and psychological interventions to support patient healing. These new possibilities include offering therapeutic interventions when patients are at their most vulnerable emotionally, physically and psychologically. The integrative treatments I propose harness whole-person healing which will greatly decrease the trauma of the transplant process as well as increase patient short and long term healing and recovery.

I believe that this project is so very crucial and I am passionate about getting it off the ground and onto the wards of hospitals, where it will benefit others who are facing the challenges of a transplant and recovery. For both personal and practical reasons it seems fitting to return this project to the ground from which it emerged. It is therefore my hope that this project will be delivered to KCH Liver Transplant Team in the first instance before reaching out to wider communities.

To ensure the success of this project, it is vital that we bring together a team of professionals, governors and patients to launch, develop and see this through. I have every faith that with the right kick-start, this project will steam roll its way forward and bear the most fruitful rewards along its path. It is with this aim and vision, that I ask for your financial support to get this project started.

As KCH have nurtured me back to physical health (enabling me to get back on my 🚴 bike!) I have put myself in for a few cycling challenges at the British and European Transplant Games!

Firstly I will be hitting the track on 29th July, for a 10k road race and 5k time trial. On the 24th August I’ll be upping my game to race a 28k road race and 7k time trial. So, what can I do 14 months post transplant?…. You’ll need to sponsor me to find out! 😅

I deeply appreciate any amount you are able to give and thank you in advance for your generous contributions!


Please see my Just Giving link to support me in my endeavours and allow me to take this important project forward. It is a joy for me to be able to give something back, to express thanks to my donor and to help others in similar situations! I invite you all to reach out to me here, ask questions and keep connected. Please follow me on Strava and Instagram Im_A_Liver_2021 to track my personal training achievements and crucially after donating I will be able to keep you posted on important project progressions.

Thank you!

Jenny

X

Liver Transplant Recipient,

Cyclist,

Mental Health Professional.

➡️ My full transplant story; Why social emotional and mental health interventions are imperative for better transplant patient outcomes.

My last concious experience was feeling unwell and seeing ‘Dad’ on my incoming calls. A fortunate call indeed. At this time my liver was in the final stages of failing, secreting a hormone which had swelled my brain. My speech was distorted and I had begun to enter a state of delirium. Unbeknownst to me, Dad had called an ambulance. From this time, I was completely unconscious to the fact my life had been offered to the hands of the fates. What followed was a series of serendipitous blessings which brought me to ‘the care of Kings‘.

After being placed into an induced coma by the emergency team at The Royal London, I was transferred to Kings College Hospital‘s Liver Intensive Care Unit (ITU). With my metabolic rate functioning at extreme highs, I arrived to Kings with hardly any living cells in my liver remaining. Each of my organs were linked up to life support, I was placed to the top of the UK donor list overnight and my family were informed I had hours, not days to live. The following day my family were told I had received (been blessed with) a donor liver. The wheels were now in motion for this prestigious body of astute KCH professionals to carry out their work of miracles. My message to the transplant coordinators, ITU staff and surgeons who worked on my fragile body relentlessly for hours, through the night: I give thanks for your unwavering hope, dedication, passion and human-kindness. It is because of the KCH Liver Transplant team that I am here, healthy and able to write this story to you. I am humbled and beholden to all those that held me at this time. For this I have pure abundant gratitude AND the ability to get back on my bike; AKA my happy place.

However, the journey to healing and recovery was by no means smooth, it was, in fact, one that was very traumatic and entailed bouts of delirium, delusion, hallucination. Within and beyond these reality states were rounds of dissociation and seizures, as well as intense feelings of fear, hopelessness, despair, loneliness and deep confusion. It took time for me to piece together my fractured reality and collate the fragments of my experience into a cohesive narrative. It is thanks to my support system and professional psychotherapeutic experience - supporting me with tools for trauma integration - that I have been able to transform my experience from Trauma to Healing (the ability to make whole). It is these resources, that if utilised alongside medical intervention will make an incredibly profound difference for Transplant Patients recovery, health and well-being.💚🙏😃