DECEMBER: Birthday boy saved by a donor

OLIVER mEAH, 11 months, lives in Birmingham with parents Vicky, 32, a carer, and Peter, 41, a heavy goods vehicle driver, step-brother michael, four, and half-sister Lily, 11. Oliver, who had a life-saving liver transplant this year, turns one on December 24.

VICKY SAYS: Christmas Eve is a real achievement for Oliver. His first 12 months have been such an emotional journey — we’re hoping next year is a bit more uneventful.

Oliver was fine up until August, then one day I noticed he looked yellow. I thought it was the light, but the next day his whole body and eyes were yellow. The GP sent us straight to Birmingham Children’s Hospital: the toxin levels in Oliver’s liver were sky-high and he went on the urgent list for a transplant.

We were later told 90 per cent of his liver was dead — no one knows why.

Doctors warned us if he worsened his brain would swell and there’d be nothing they could do. And this could happen in just 24 hours.

It was terrifying. Just days before he was fine; now he was fighting for his life.

Miraculously a donor liver was found the next day. Oliver spent a month in intensive care and came home in October.

He’s been in hospital a few times with infections, but we feel incredibly lucky to still have him with us, having Christmas as a family.