Desperate office worker, 29, makes plea for THIRD life-saving liver donor in five years
Alex Keel has been told that she is unlikely to be offered a fourth liver transplant if another liver fails again
A YOUNG office worker has made a desperate plea for help as she hopes to undergo her third liver transplant in five years.
Brave Alex Keel has been told by doctors that she is unlikely to be offered a fourth liver transplant if another liver fails again.
The 29-year-old knows that she will die without one.
She is battling a rare disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) which is believed to have caused a faulty immune system that eventually led to liver damage.
Those with the condition hope that a liver transplant can mean that the disease never comes back, but for Alex, who is married to husband Charles, 32, it has now returned twice.
Related stories
She said: "Surgically it becomes harder to do repeat transplants and they might take the view someone else is more deserving if my transplants keep on failing."
PSC causes bile to build up in ducts instead of being washed away by the liver, with more than 300 people being diagnosed each year.
The build up of bile then leads to scarring of the liver, and in many cases liver failure.
Alex’s consultant Gideon Hirschfield, a liver disease specialist based in Birmingham, said: “There is no cure for this condition, some drugs help reduce symptoms but if things get serious transplant is our only option.
"Last year alone, despite how rare PSC is, more than 1 in 10 liver transplants for adults in the UK were for PSC, and transplant is not a cure, as disease can sadly recur.
"The people who get PSC are - like Alex - frequently young patients in the prime of their lives. This disease can lead to transplants in children as well."
Within months of third transplant Alex would be given a stem cell transplant to protect the new organ - the first time one has been attempted in the UK.
In April this year her second transplant began to fail, and she has now become so ill that doctors are already planning to move her to the top of the list for a transplant.
She said: "Things were going so well after the first transplant. I married Charles and we started talking about having a family.
"We put it off I guess to make sure I was fully over the transplant and then it started to fail."
Alex, from Cheltenham, was healthy and fit until she was struck down in 2011, but it took months to get a diagnosis."
Alex’s doctors at first thought she had a skin disease when she complained of itching.
And even when she turned yellow, a typical sign of liver damage, doctors at Cheltenham Hospital did not properly diagnose her.
As she became more ill, and with pains in her abdomen and fever like symptoms, she was referred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Her initial transplant worked for almost three years.
She said: "With the first two transplants I didn’t worry but now I’m needing a third I’m beginning to get anxious about dying from this disease.
"It’s got a hold of me and won’t go away."
As Alex battles her illness, her colleagues are trying to raise thousands of pounds to support Alex after a third transplant and are raising awareness of her plight on
The money would support her until she is fit enough to return to work.
Friend Caroline Elliot said: "Her positivity and her determination not to pity herself is nothing short of amazing.
"She does get scared and sad at times, but she does not let her condition or her feelings get in the way of leading as normal life a life as possible.
Alex added: "I used to weigh nine stone and until recently I was seven and a half stone. Now I’m around six stone nine.
"I’m quite weak and get exhausted a lot, but I still walk 45 minutes a day. It exhausts me but I’m trying to keep things as normal as possible."
To read about how you can help Alex and others in need of a liver transplant, visit
If you want to donate to Alex then visit www.gofundme.com/smileforalex
