Twins’ live liver transplant a first

Bonus for 48-year-old sisters after tests reveal they are genetically identical

The first identical twins to undergo a live liver transplant in the UK have described how they did not realise theywere identical until one of them needed the surgery. Annemarie Atha, 48, said she did not think twice about donating part of her liver to her twin sister Geraldine Rowing when she became so sick her doctor recommended a transplant.

MsAthasaid it was an added bonusto find out that, despite everything they had always been told by their mother, they were genetically identical, meaning her sister does not need to take a

cocktail of drugs to stop her body rejecting the new organ.

“I would just like to say thank you very much Annemarie,” Ms Rowing said as she hugged her sister at St James’s Hospital, in Leeds, where the operation took place. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

With both women in tears, Ms Atha said: “I always said I would do it anyway.”

Ms Rowing explained how

“We’ve grown up believing we’re not identical”

her liver had been damaged by cancer a fewyears ago and her doctors eventually recommended she went on the transplant list.

She mentioned to her doctor that she was a non-identical twin and he suggested doing tests.

The test revealed that the sisters, who live in Rothwell, near Leeds, were genetically identical despite not looking exactly the same.

“Mum always said that because there were two placentas when we were born that weweren’t identical,” saidMs Atha. “So we’ve grown up believing we’re not identical because Geraldine’s got a wider smile than me and she’s got a squarer face than me.”

The sisters went through the operation in April andMs Rowing said she is feeling much better.

“It was a while ago and I still get tired but I can’t thank everybody enough. I walk round and nobody knows that I’ve had a liver transplant.”

Consultant liver surgeon Raj Prasad, who did the operation, said live liver transplants – where the donor is a living person who donates a section of their organ for the operation – are getting more common.

And he said the benefits of identical twinshaving theoperation was massive.