‘I’d written goodbye letters to my children, now life is wonderful’

SUE Bennett has every reason to be thankful for the new liver transplant machine as four years ago she was convinced she was dying.

‘I’d written goodbye letters to my children and even bought my daughter Millie, who was then 13, a present to open on her wedding day because I didn’t think I would be here,’ she said.

Mrs Bennett, 45, a motherof-three from Staffordshire, is now living life to the full after she became one of the first people in Britain to undergo a transplant using perfusion in 2015. ‘I signed up for the trial not knowing I would be one of the first to have this procedure in the country,’ she said.

‘Before my transplant I was very ill. I was losing weight, I couldn’t sleep and my quality of life was quite low.’

She was back home nine days after the operation, which she said changed her life. ‘My life is unbelievably wonderful,’ said Mrs Bennett.

‘I’m very healthy, I’m very happy and very active. I’ve been very lucky.’

In 2016 she even won a gold medal at the Transplant Games for Team GB.

The same year she was introduced to Sharron Jones, whose daughter Amy died at the age of 24 after an epileptic seizure, allowing her liver to be donated to Sue.

‘We were both instantly in floods of tears, it was so overwhelming’ said Mrs Bennett. ‘Sharron said Amy was doing her proud by helping me.’