"I've been given a life": Amber's two liver transplants

A woman who has had two liver transplants at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham has thanked the families of her donors, saying: "I've been given a life."

Amber shared her story with University Hospitals Birmingham during Organ Donation Week to encourage more people to register their decision and talk to their families about it.

A sudden illness at 19

In March 2006, when she was 19, Amber developed acute liver failure with no known cause. A friend noticed that the whites of her eyes had turned yellow. Within days she was having a liver transplant at the Queen Elizabeth.

"It all happened so quickly," she said.

A second transplant

She went on to face further health problems, including aplastic anaemia, a condition in which the body stops producing enough new blood cells. In 2020 a blood clot in the portal vein, which carries blood to the liver, damaged her transplanted liver.

In October 2025 she had a second transplant, a 12-hour operation, and she was discharged in January 2026. Her new liver, she says, is "doing amazingly".

A message to other families

"Two families made the decision to say yes to organ donation during the most difficult time of their lives," Amber said. She hopes her story will help others to understand what that decision can mean.

A world-leading centre

The Queen Elizabeth is one of the busiest liver transplant centres in Europe, and it carries out transplants for adults from across the country. The hospital's specialist teams also look after patients for years afterwards, as Amber's story shows.

How to help

People can register their organ donation decision in around two minutes on the NHS Organ Donor Register or through the NHS App, and the NHS asks everyone to tell their family what they have decided.