Tooting bride marries 11 weeks after life-saving liver transplant to beat rare disease

Liver transplant recipient Clare Dickins has paid tribute to her donor and the surgeons who have given her a new lease of life. 

The 29-year-old, who lives in Tooting, received a new liver at the Royal Free Hospital in December after a two-year wait. 

She got married just 11 weeks later and has just started a new job in the events industry to cap a remarkable year and highlights the importance the NHS drive to raise awareness over organ donation.

Clare was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) when she was 17. It’s a rare liver disease where the immune system attacks the organ. 

The rare condition meant Clare was often in and out of hospital if she developed an infection and there were constant medical appointments and fatigue. 

“From being someone who enjoyed exercising and playing football, I had to drop everything,” she said. 

“When I was told at 20 by my consultant that one day I’d need a liver transplant, I was fearful – but as my health deteriorated, I looked forward to getting a new liver.” 

A few months before she was put on the liver transplant list, Clare met husband Ben and, after getting engaged in May, they set a wedding date for February this year, not knowing when an operation might come. 

Last July, Clare was called in for a potential transplant that proved a false alarm, but then, just before Christmas, the call came again, and this time there were no setbacks. 

After a 10-hour operation Clare spent 24 hours in intensive care and was finally allowed to leave hospital at 9pm on Christmas Eve.  

She said: “I remember looking in the mirror in the hospital just a couple of days after the operation and seeing how white my eyes were compared to how yellow they had been before. It felt like a whole new start.”

“It was the best Christmas present ever being able to spend Christmas with my family.” 

She has started playing netball and running and hopes one day to resume playing football. 

Clare said: “Every time I do something new and exciting, I say thank you to the donors [in my mind], as it’s because of them I’m having these experiences. I’m so grateful to them and their family for being so generous in what is the most awful situation.” 

Pictured top: Wedding day for Clare and Ben – and a new chapter begins after the transplant (Pictures: Clare Dickins)