Hi my name is Shane and me and a few close friends of the family are doing a sponsored bike ride from Tewkesbury to Birmingham queen Elizabeth hospital on the 28th June. My step daughter was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis in December 2019. We spent a year in and out of the children’s hospital while the carried out biopsies, treatment and transplant assessments. As you can imagine the toll it took on what used to be a happy settled home life. In June 2022 a phone call came that she was on the active transplant list and that our phones could ring at any time day or night. On the 4th September 2022 the phone rang with the news that they had found a match so we anxiously made our way to the children’s hospital. 8hrs later after the most anxious and terrifying wait the transplant was done and all went really well or so we thought only to find out the donor was the wrong blood type and her liver had been rejected. The children’s hospital were really great with this never event and researched and were in talks with other surgeons and decided that plasma treatment was needed to try and fool the body into thinking it was the correct liver. It didn’t work. Feeling angry and frustrated we were told she would need a second transplant. However for just over two years with the correct medication the damaged liver barely functioning held steady but not without complications and more hospital admissions. Which now brings us to November 2024, she became very ill very quickly and was rushed to Birmingham queen Elizabeth hospital to find out the cause. It was determined after multiple test that her liver had in fact stopped functioning and her medication was in fact irrelevant. We were told she was going to need a transplant sooner rather than later and was activated on the emergency transplant list. The second transplant happened in January 2025 and we had high hopes that this is where our daughter would regain her life, but sadly that wasn’t the case, her artery going to the liver had a blood clot in and needed another surgery to remove and put a shunt in as it what damaged. Her bloods wouldn’t stabilise and she was hyper sensitive to her new anti rejection meds which led to her having multiple seizures. Eventually she was well enough to be discharged only to be rushed back in during April 2025, resulting in her artery to the liver had completely collapsed and now need a 3rd transplant with building her a new artery from her aortic artery. You can only imagine our turmoil and anger and complete frustration. So as a thank you for all the hard work both hospitals have achieved in keeping my daughter alive we would like to raise money in order for the hospitals to have funding to use for what they need.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that we can raise the funds and be able to split between the children’s hospital and the queen Elizabeth in Birmingham