DYING MOTHER
HEARTBROKEN Katie Price tried to give her incurably ill mum a lung to save her life. Amy, 64, was moved by her daughter’s brave offer but had to turn her down in case the risky procedure went wrong. Today Loose Women star Katie and her siblings will be holding Amy just a little bit closer. They are faced with the devastating knowledge that their time with Amy is running out and it may be her last Mother’s Day. Last year she was diagnosed with the same incurable lung condition that killed TV presenter Keith Chegwin in December, aged 60. She was told she has IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has a life expectancy of three to five years. Model Katie, set to divorce third husband Kieran Hayler, has publicly struggled with the prospect of losing her beloved mum. She broke down on Loose Women in December at the thought it may be Amy’s last Christmas and had to be helped off the set. Katie, 39, her sister Sophie, 27, brother Dan, 42, and stepdad Paul, 55, are working with the British Lung Foundation to raise awareness and funds for pioneering research. Next month Katie will run the Virgin Money London Marathon for the charity dressed as a lung.
Risky
Amy said: “My family are making me so proud. Like most mothers, it doesn’t matter how old my children get, they’re constantly on my mind. “They’re my priority and when I was diagnosed they were my first thought.” But Amy said there was one gift Katie offered that she could not accept. She told Amy: “Mum, I’m going to give you my lung.” Amy replied: “I said no, you’re not going to do that. You’ve got to think if, by any chance, it went wrong, who’s going to look after your kids? “You’ve got to think about your children, not me, and what’s going to happen to them. “Of course, I was so touched at her offer. But Kate is my child, not the other way around. I have to protect her. “So there will be no lung transplant from Kate. I can’t allow it”. It is possible for a person to receive a lung transplant from two living donors but the complex and risky ops are rare in the UK. The lower lobe of the right lung is removed from one donor, and the lower lobe of the left lung is removed from the other donor. Both lungs are removed from the recipient and then replaced with the lung implants. Amy first noticed something was wrong in September 2012 when she struggled for breath walking up the