HENRY Steele, 25, was told he was unlikely to make Christmas without a liver transplant. He tells health reporter KATE LIPTROT how a last minute transplant transformed his life and gave him hope for the future.

IT was in the early hours of the morning last summer that Henry Steele got the phone call he had been waiting for.

Jolted out of sleep by the ringing of the phone, he stumbled out of bed to be told a suitable liver donor had been found and he needed to get to hospital as soon as possible.

He and his mother Yvonne sped from Ampleforth to St James's University Teaching Hospital in the dark where Henry was prepared for the six hour operation.

Having suffered from liver disease since he was ten-years-old, in recent months Henry's health had seriously deteriorated to the extent his liver was beginning to completely fail and he had been warned he may not survive another six months unless he got a transplant.

Suffering jaundice, black-outs, exhaustion and an intolerable itching, experts had become sufficiently concerned about his health to bump him to the top of the transplant list.

"I was expecting to get a false call," Henry remembered, but when he arrived at hospital he was given the go ahead for surgery.

Accompanying her son into the theatre, Yvonne said: "I felt excitement for him - it was his only lifeline. But I knew the risks and I worried if he would survive."

Six hours later Henry was wheeled out of theatre and intubated in intensive care. But there were problems - there was significant bleeding and Henry's blood wasn't clotting properly so he was taken into theatre a further two times, undergoing a total of 20 hours in surgery.

He was diagnosed with pneumonia and then pleurisy and underwent an operation to address a blockage in a vein.

But Henry pulled through and more than six months on looks incredibly healthy - in sharp contrast to pictures taken of him a year ago.

While being very remorseful another family had lost a loved one, he said he feels incredible grateful to be alive.

"I'm a thousand times better than before, I feel I have more energy, I have got a future," Henry said, "At the time I didn't think I would make Christmas let alone the New Year. I feel euphoric to be alive."

The 25-year-old has suffered from a number of long-standing medical conditions since he was a child. Yvonne said Henry had first become ill when he was at primary school.

“I took him to the local GP, who referred him to York Hospital and then St James’ Hospital, in Leeds, where he was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and ulcerative colitis and then with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).”

Yvonne said she was told it was not contagious and the causes were unknown, but likely to have a genetic link which possibly needed an environmental trigger.

The former York doorman, who now takes a cocktail of medication including anti rejection drugs, anti sickness medication, aspirin and steroids, said he is looking into possibilities for a new future career.

He has thanked the team of doctors and nurses in York and Leeds who have helped him, including Mr Giles Toogood, Dr Lee Claridge and Dr Charles Millson.

Henry is calling for people to sign up to the organ donor register and for Government legislation that would automatically register people as donors from birth unless they opted out.

"Too many people die waiting for organs." Henry said, "We need people to sign up to the register. Even if it doesn't affect them, they will know someone it affects."

- To sign up to the organ donor register, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk


Liver disease fact file

Accounting for more deaths than diabetes and road deaths combined, liver disease is the fifth biggest killer in the UK.

"It is alarming that we have seen a 500 per cent increase in deaths from liver disease since the Seventies," says Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, running this month's Love Your Liver campaign. "Nowadays, more than 40 people a day die from liver disease."


THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL

While he points out that there are obviously other causes of liver disease than too much booze, he also explains that "the vast majority is caused by three main preventable causes - too much alcohol, obesity and viral hepatitis." Therefore, reducing your alcohol intake is perhaps the quickest and easiest thing to address, when it comes to liver health.


WHAT DO LIVERS DO?

If they don't have time to recuperate, you're basically compromising the largest organ inside your body. Often called the body's 'factory', the liver carries out 500 different functions, from making proteins and blood-clotting factors, to aiding digestion and energy release, and storing energy and iron.

It also, the bit most people know, purifies the blood of bacteria, by-products of digestion... and alcohol. While the bacteria and digestion bit can't really be controlled, if you control the alcohol it has to deal with, you're instantly helping out.

Too much alcohol will lead to alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD). First, there is a build-up of fats in the liver, called alcoholic fatty liver disease. Then comes alcoholic hepatitis (not related to infectious hepatitis) which is the second, more serious stage of ARLD and occurs when alcohol misuse over a longer period causes the tissues of the liver to become inflamed.

At this stage, it is still reversible if you give up drinking, but if you don't, you reach cirrhosis, the final stage of ARLD, which is when the liver becomes significantly, and irreversibly, scarred.


SILENT SYMPTOMS

Liver disease is sometimes referred to as the 'silent killer', because early symptoms are often ignored or confused with other conditions - such as feeling generally unwell or tired, having a poor appetite, losing weight, having a tender abdomen, feeling itchy and vomiting.

It's only when liver damage is quite severe that the effects are more obvious - such as jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin), problems with bleeding, drowsiness, fever, swollen abdomen and legs, tarry black stools or vomiting blood (If you have any of these symptoms, consult your doctor immediately).


HOW TO KEEP YOUR LIVER IN CHECK

If you're worried about keeping your own liver healthy, there are things you can do, says the Liver Trust:

• Enjoy more fruit and veg and avoid sugary drinks.

• Exercise regularly to burn the fat in your liver and other organs.

• Take two to three consecutive days off alcohol a week, to let your liver cells recover and repair themselves.

• Practise safe sex.

"The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, highlights that at least 20 per cent of us are at risk of liver disease," says Langford.

"It is therefore very important that we all look after our liver health. I suggest that everyone completes our Love Your Liver health screener and reads the advice and support report that will be produced from it."

• For more information, visit www.loveyourliver.org.uk