Lily Kirkaldy was diagnosed with liver failure when she was born, with doctors telling her parents she needed a transplant within a month.

Her family then had an agonising four-week wait as Lily was placed on the super-urgent waiting list.But a suitable donor was found at the last moment when Lily was just five weeks old.

Mum Helen Beattie said: "Doctors told us there was nothing they could do for her – she needed a transplant.

"We were told she had between two and four weeks to live without one. But, because she was so small, doctors said the first available liver would be for Lily.

"I didn't think she would come through it and we had got to the stage where we thought it wouldn't happen.

"The majority of donors were adults but Lily needed a child's liver."
Miss Beattie was told by a nurse at 10pm on June 18 there was a possibility they might have a donor.

She said: "We could not believe it when a suitable donor was found. She was given a child's liver which could only be cut down to a certain size."

The following morning surgeons at Birmingham Children's Hospital decided within five minutes to go ahead with the operation.

Ten minutes later Lily was undergoing the 12-hour operation – on the same day as her older sister's birthday.

Miss Beattie, of Nethertown Way, Mawsley, said she spent the 12-hour wait pacing the room and waiting to speak to the transplant co-ordinator for updates.

She said: "I just kept saying 'please tell me she's still alive'. There was a couple of times when they said there had been complications and she had to have the blood replaced in her body five times."

Miss Beattie and Lily's father, Neil Kirkaldy, were told the operation had gone as well as could be expected but they spent the three weeks by her bedside in intensive care.

However, the liver was still too big for Lily's small body, and although the toddler will grow around the organ, there is currently a lump protruding from her stomach.

Lily has spent more than half her life in hospital and her family feared the worst when her body showed signs of rejecting the liver at Christmas.

She was given drugs and now the couple live one day at a time along with their other children, Georgia, 11, Joshua, nine and Chloe, five.

Mr Kirkaldy said: "You can have one good week and then up in hospital again. When she's well, she's very content and happy - she's been amazing."

The family are planning a quiet celebration because Lily cannot be around too many people in case she picks up an illness.