New Mills dancer who was two weeks from death says she is forever grateful to donor

Kim Burton Hicks was a dancer and worked full time, now two years after her lifesaving liver transplant she is back on the waiting list again as her body is rejecting the new organ.

In November 2020 Kim, who is a dog groomer, was feeling unwell.

She was tired all the time and at one point had to rush into the back garden to be sick as she felt so unwell while at work.

She said: “I went to Stepping Hill Hospital where I stayed for a week then I was blue lighted to Leeds where I was told my liver had died with no explanation as to why but I didn’t meet the criteria for a transplant so to get my finances and paperwork in order as I had about two weeks left to live.

“That was so much information to receive and I don’t think the seriousness of it all sunk in at the time.

“As it was during covid I wasn’t allowed visitors so would video chat with my husband, Neil, but I was in such pain I was hallucinating and speaking to him about having cuddles from dogs I had groomed which had died.”

Whilst in hospital a client of Paws High peak started up a ‘Go Fund Me’ page for Kim, in which the first day they raised £17k to pay for her to go private.

Go Fund Me said it was the quickest amount they had ever raised with such a high figure.

There are six transplant hospitals in the UK and they all had a discussion about Kim and it was agreed that because she led an active and healthy lifestyle there was a strong chance the operation would be a success.

Kim, who was aged 39 in January 2021, shot to the top of the UK transplant list, where the waiting time is normally just hours.

However, being a petite size eight she had to wait a further 12 days for a donor of her size.

Kim said: “I had a nurse praying over me as I was that poorly while I waited for the right donor to come through.”

Kim spent the next three months in hospital not seeing anyone and not knowing if she would live or die.

Six months after her transplant she wrote to the donor’s family, a woman in her 40s whose brain was dead but her organs were still fully functional when she died and Kim suspects she was in a car accident but says she will never know.

Kims said: “I can’t imagine the pain and loss they are feeling.

“This woman died and gave me life again.

“I think of this woman everyday. I am here because she is not.

“When I was well enough I bought a ring with the birthstone for January on it.

“To honour this woman’s death and the month I was given life.”

Kim, 41, left the hospital with 70 staples in her stomach, tablets to take for life. She has now received the news her liver is not working as it should be and has been put back on the transplant list.

She said: “I have been told the next transplant is much higher risk as surgeons will be going through scar tissue and the recovery time will take longer.

“It took me 18 months to recover and I’m still not the person I was.

“It used to dance and do fitness classes, but in the early stages it was a challenge just to do 20 steps a day.

“I used to work full time and groom 10 or 12 dogs a day, now I only do six a week.

“I’m still not 100 per cent. The other month I collapsed while I was grooming a dog as I was just so weak I couldn’t lift my arms to use the clippers.

“So I am nervous about the new transplant but mentally much more ready.

“Everything I went through last time was so unexpected, and happened all of a sudden it left me needing therapy.

“This time me and my husband – who has done a wonderful job of keeping our business going and looking after me – know what is coming.”

Kim has been waiting almost 650 days for a new liver and she can never be more than two hours away from Leeds hospital in case she gets the call.

She said: “The call could come any time of the day or night so my phone is always on loud.

“I know the list varies and is based on need not on time in the queue. Part of me is expecting for me to get worse so I can move up the queue.

“But also the harsh reality is every day I am waking up waiting for someone to die.

“And again we will face the same problem of finding one small enough for my body so next time it may not be a woman in her 40s.

“I am forever grateful for the family who decided to donate that day.

“Whatever happens a family will be in mourning while I am in recovery and that is a lot for anyone to process once never mind twice.”

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