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Help give me a new liver!

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Dr Abbas Al-Qafaji is one of many NHS heroes who have worked to save lives and protect the NHS during the pandemic

He has worked in A&E and been exposed to the risk of contracting Covid-19.  Now he needs your help so that he can have a life-saving liver transplant.

He is seeking £200,000 so that he can carry on with his 20 year NHS career and provide for his wife and young family.

The plan is for him to have his transplant at a top private hospital in Central London.

Last week his plight worsened with the news that doctors had found another tumour on his liver.

Delays to transplants in this country due to Covid means he might not get a transplant in time if he waits for the NHS.

He said: “I would dearly love the NHS to do my transplant but it’s in a difficult position and I’ve come to the conclusion I need to go private. I understand the problems the health service is facing. I haven’t taken this decision lightly. But I have to think of my health and the impact that losing me would have on my family.

The self employed, locum, medic has been working at NHS hospitals across the country during the pandemic despite his ill health 

Originally from Iraq, he is a British citizen who has worked for the health service since his arrival in the UK.

Abbas was diagnosed with liver disease and a liver tumour by chance after he was scanned following a car crash in March.

Specialists have manged to keep the cancer at bay but told Abbas he needs a liver transplant to save his life.

Abbas has worked with Covid-19 patients during the pandemic at great personal risk due to his illness and his ethnicity.


Back in the Summer he made an appeal for anyone willing to be a living donor to speed up the process of getting a transplant. 

Thanks to an appeal by the Daily Mirror in July a living donor- who will give 30 pc of his liver- was found. He ticks all the boxes for surgery to take place

But Abbas has run into a roadblock. The liver transplant programme has been partially suspended due to pressure on beds, particularly in ICU. Only the most urgent operations are happening,

And there is an added complication. While the transplant authorities have cleared Abbas's donor – a family friend- to have the surgery, doctors are reluctant to place the donor at risk of getting coronavirus.

Abbas has been told non-urgent transplants have been suspended until January at the earliest with no guarantee they will start again in the first month of the New Year.

All the time Abbas’s health is declining. He used to work 4-5 shifts a week in hospital in the East Midlands and Yorkshire. But fatigue – caused by his fading liver – means he can now only work one or two days.

“I worry for my wife and my three children, more than myself. “ We have no family in this country. Who will look after them if I die? That’s why I want help to have my surgery privately in London.

His wife Farah, 47, a medical scientist, who currently looks after the couple’s children, fears he could be dead within months unless he gets a transplant soon.

"He has worked so hard for this country. He has three children who need their dad. I don't know what we would do if he was to die without a transplant.



Abbas-said: "This is a cry for help, we are in a desperate situation. My wife and I weren't born in this country, and we have no family in the UK to support us or our three children.

"I don't know what the future holds for them if something happens to me." The couple’s three children, are Saif, 14, Nawal,10 and young Dalal, four.

Farah added: "It is scary and we are very worried for Abbas. He has a loving family who are immensely proud of the work he has been doing for the NHS."

The couple live near Grimsby in Lincolnshire and have work and local community friends.

But now they need the help of everyone to raise enough cash to make his transplant happen as soon as possible

Abbas wants to live so he can carry on saving lives in the NHS.

With your generosity he will get his transplant.


Organizer

Farah Jabbar
Organizer

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