Woman-THREE-liver-transplants-given-just-hours-live-celebrates-good-health-wedding-dreams

 I didn't think I would ever find love': Woman who had THREE liver transplants and given just hours to live celebrates recovery with the wedding of her dreams

• Kate Jakes, 22, never thought she would find love after battling liver failureShe had two unsuccessful transplant before the third one worked
• Just three weeks after her final operation she met her husband Gareth

woman who had three liver transplants and was given just hours to live has celebrated her good health by getting married.

Kate Jakes, 22, from Birmingham, never thought she would find love due to her health problems, which saw her go undergo three gruelling operations in just three years after her body repeatedly rejected her new livers.

But, after years of hospital appointments and surgeries, the blogger met her future husband, Gareth, 25, on a rare day away from hospital - and the pair married last month.

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In March last year Gareth proposed to Kate and they were married last month

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Kate, pictured in hospital before her second liver transplant, never thought she would find love

Kate said: 'With all my health issues, I come with a lot of baggage, so I never thought I'd find love.

'The first time I met Gareth my skin was still yellow and I had a big tube in my nose, but he saw through it and treated me like a normal person.

'It was so refreshing because everyone was used to constantly tiptoe-ing around me and wrapping me in cotton wool because I'd been unwell for so long.

'I'd lost a lot of my younger years on hospital wards so I was shocked he was interested in me, normally as soon as people heard I was a transplant patient they were too scared.

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Kate was given had two unsuccessful liver transplants before the third and final one was a success. Pictured - the 22-year-old's stomach showing the scars from transplants one and two

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Kate Jakes, 22, spent three years battling life-threatening liver failure, but has now celebrated returning to good health by marrying her husband Gareth

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Kate, pictured in hospital, was told that she would be lucky to survive a week if doctors failed to find a donor

'I had to warn him that I would be ill a lot of the time and might have a shorter life expectancy because of being a transplant patient.

'It wasn't the most romantic way to get to know someone but we had to be honest with each other.'

After experiencing health issues for much of her life, Kate wondered if she would ever find love.

She said: 'I used to get really upset, talking to my mum about how I'd never have a relationship with anyone.

'I wondered if anyone would ever want to deal with the hassle, but it didn't faze Gareth at all. 

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Kate, pictured left before transplant number three and before her date with Gareth, and, right, after the operation, says Gareth met her when she still had tubes in her nose and was not phased at all

'In the beginning of our relationship, whenever I used to talk about my health problems, he'd change the subject.

'It was strange to get used to, but refreshing, he wanted to know me but in a different way to everybody else - he didn't care about my health issues.'

Kate began experiencing symptoms of liver failure when she was just 16 years old.

Her worried parents, Tracey Tolley and Mike Trevener, put her lack of energy down to her being a teenager, but soon her exhaustion began to take over her life.

She said: 'At school I would find that I couldn't concentrate and would bring a lot of my work home, I just lacked energy to think clearly.

'It got to the point where I planned days out with friends, was looking forward to them, but had to cancel because I couldn't pull myself out of bed.'

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Kate says it was amazing to find someone who didn't tiptoe around her illness 

But it wasn't until Kate passed out at a supermarket that her parents realised something wasn't right.

Kate said: 'I came round and couldn't stand up on my own, my Dad had to support me even when taking a few steps.

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Kate is now back to normal health but says that she has to take things a bit slower 

'I went to the doctor's surgery and the nurse took two looks and pulled a very worried face.

'A GP rushed in and noticed how jaundiced I looked - he called an ambulance straight away.'

Kate spent three weeks at Heartlands Hospital, while doctors tried to determine the cause of her symptoms.

She was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she was diagnosed with end stage liver failure caused by auto immune hepatitis - a condition that is caused by an unknown virus that causes the body to attack itself, thinking your organs are foreign objects.

Kate said: 'I was diagnosed two days before my 18th birthday.

'My family and I were told the news, and then the doctors then introduced us to two transplant coordinators - they told me I'd be lucky to survive until the end of the week without a liver transplant.

'After I heard that everything turned to white noise.

'I couldn't concentrate or take in anything the doctors said.

'In my hospital bed, it didn't feel like my last week to live. I had to remain positive.

'It felt so dreadful and feared what would happen if they couldn't get me a liver in time.

'But I kept thinking that if I died I didn't want my family to remember me in pain and a misery, I wanted to leave them with happy memories.'

Kate's case was urgent and she was bumped to the top of the transplant list.

Time ticked away and with less than 48 hours to live, doctors raced to tell Kate that they'd found a liver, which was being flown over from Ireland.

Little did they know, the plane carrying Kate's new liver had crashed on the runway at Birmingham Airport, after heavy fog and bad weather conditions made it difficult for the pilot to land.

Surgeons worried the organ may have been damaged in the crash that hospitalised two people, but fortunately it was found by the fire services who plucked it from the burning plane and rushed it to the hospital.

The transplant was complete, but eight days later the family's joy was dashed, when Kate's body rejected the new liver.

 With all my health issues, I come with a lot of baggage, so I never thought I'd find love

Kate was put back on the transplant list, and was placed in a medically induced coma to prolong her life.

Remarkably, a second liver was soon found and a second transplant took place.

But six months later Katie's skin returned to a jaundiced glow, a clear sign that her body was rejecting this liver too.

Kate said: 'A lot of people die waiting on the transplant list so I felt so lucky to have had the two livers but equally shocked they had failed.

'The first two kept me alive long enough to try again and gave me that chance to fight my rare condition, it spurred me on to keep fighting.'  

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Kate met Gareth just three weeks after her final transplant and the pair instantly clicked 

Kate's health continued to get worse - she suffered from fluid retention around her heart and lungs as well as severe kidney failure, almost heading into a coma.

Three months later, Kate was overjoyed once more to discover that a third liver was found. Remarkably, her body accepted the liver and her health started to pick up.

Three weeks later Kate was discharged from hospital for the weekend where she met Gareth, an airman in the RAP, at a party.

Quickly the couple grew close and in March last year, Gareth popped the question.

Kate said: 'He came home one day and asked me to marry him.

'It wasn't a big fancy engagement, but it was perfect for us. '

The couple finally married in July last year and are now planning their honeymoon.

Kate said: 'I should have died at 18 before I had my first transplant, so to find love and to have married Gareth has made me happier than I could have imagined.

'I never thought anyone would be able to overlook everything I've been through.

'My health is now fine, although I still have to take things a bit slower than other people, a day's shopping will tire me out, which Gareth's probably grateful for.'