Loving mother risks her own life to save daughter after the death of her husband and son

England: Rose Shipley had already lost her husband and son to diabetes and now it was threatening to take her daughter too.

Suzanne, 29, needed a new kidney or would have to spend the rest of her life on dialysis.

So when Rose turned out to be a perfect donor match she didn’t hesitate to offer a kidney to her daughter– but to do so she had to put her own life on the line twice.

Weighing 17st 7lb and a size 22, she was considered too overweight for such major surgery.

And because of the urgency, doctors suggested a drastic solution to the mum of four – a risky gastric bypass to lose four stones.

Rose, 56, says: “I had tried every diet going without success. I knew two major operations were the only solution, but I would have gone through anything to save my daughter’s life.”

So in October 2013 Rose had the gruelling bariatric surgery and, a year later, on October 6, mother and daughter had transplant surgery with Suzanne receiving her mum’s kidney.

The operation was a success and both are recovering well.

Suzanne, from Warrington, Cheshire, says: “Mum has been through so much to save my life. I’ll never be able to repay her for what she’s done. She’s made so many sacrifices and given me my life back.”

Suzanne’s kidneys failed two years ago due to complications from Type 1 diabetes, a hereditary form where the pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin which affects all organs and the nervous system.

She was just 14 when her dad Graham died from kidney failure brought on by the same Type 1.

Suzanne says: “I was devastated by his death but soon after I too started feeling ill. I lost loads of weight, was always thirsty and had no energy. I couldn’t get up in the mornings for school so Mum took me to the doctor, who diagnosed diabetes.”

Suzanne’s older brother and sister had both suffered from the same illness since childhood. Brother Stephen went blind at 19, while sister Claire, now 31, has to manage her illness carefully.

Suzanne says: “I knew what the diagnosis meant and it felt like a life sentence. I didn’t want to inject myself with insulin three times a day but I did and started feeling better.

“I only weighed about 6st then but as I started taking the insulin the weight started going back on again. I was convinced I was getting fat and wanted to stay really skinny which I knew I could if I didn’t take my insulin.

“So I stopped taking it. Nowadays doctors have a name for this kind of eating disorder – diabulimia – but back then no one understood.

"Mum would despair and my family would beg me to take the insulin. But I was a teenager and thought I knew best. I hid the illness from my friends – none of them knew I was diabetic.

"I didn’t want to have to carry needles around with me and keep taking blood sugar counts. I just pretended it wasn’t happening."

She adds: “Then at the age of 16 I started going out. I was drinking alcohol like everyone else, but the diabetes meant I got drunk really quickly.

"I’d be so drunk that I don’t know how I got home sometimes.”

Suzanne’s rebellion took a toll on her body in the end.

She says: “Not taking insulin doesn’t affect you straight away. The damage takes a while to show.

"But when I was 19 I started getting agonising pains and cramps in my legs.

“I was working in a nursery and studying to be a classroom assistant.

"I loved working with children, wanted to make that my life, but my health started suffering. It was the wake-up call I needed so I started taking my insulin when I needed to.

“But the damage was done. I started getting blank spots in my vision and tests showed pressure was building up in my eyes – that’s a side effect of low insulin – and I’ve since needed countless operations to save my sight.”

Finally, at 25, she gave up her job

She recalls: “I would cry with tiredness and had so many days off sick it wasn’t fair on my employers so I left. It was heartbreaking because I loved it so much.”

Suzanne’s kidneys had started to fail so she needed regular monitoring in hospital.

She says: “Then I needed surgery on a tooth abscess. The codeine tablets I took for the pain tipped my kidneys over the edge and they stopped working. After that doctors told me I would need dialysis to stay alive.”

Suzanne had to go to hospital three or four times a week for four hours of dialysis.

In January 2012, just a few months after she started dialysis, her brother Stephen died. Suzanne says: “He’d been so supportive when I suffered kidney failure.

He’d been blind since 19 but he had his own flat and an amazing group of friends In January 2012 he’d had flu, then one morning he just didn’t wake up.

He’d slipped into a diabetic coma in his sleep and died. He was only 31.”

His death made the family even more determined to save Suzanne’. Everyone was tested as a possible kidney donor.

Mum Rose says: “I was a match but doctors said at 40 my BMI was too high – I was too big to be a donor.

"My sister proved a match but then became ill, while my other daughter Laura was too young to be a donor.

"I’d always thought I would be a donor one day, either to Suzanne or her older sister Claire who’s diabetic too. Now Suzanne really needed me, Stephen had just died and I was determined not to lose another child.

“I’d never been able to lose the extra weight so I spoke to the doctors about what I could do to be Suzanne’s donor. They recommended a gastric bypass.

"Normally they would never consider it for a small weight loss – I needed to lose four stone and have a BMI of 31. But because Suzanne’s life was at stake they felt it was worth doing.

“I would have gone through anything to save her life so I agreed.”

The bypass is a major procedure which involves much of the digestive system being rerouted past the stomach.

Rose suffered complications and was in hospital for three weeks.

She recalls: “I was really ill. And it was a whole life-change for me as now I can only eat ice cube-sized pieces of food instead of normal portion with the rest of the family – but all I had to do was look at Suzanne to know it was worth doing.”

By summer this year Rose was down to 13st and was given the go-ahead to be a kidney donor.

Suzanne says: “It was exciting but scary. Mum was doing so much for me, putting herself through a second operation. But she was so determined to do it.

“It was really emotional when I went for my final dialysis at the beginning of October. The staff of Ward 6b at the Liverpool Royal have become like a second family to me.

“I’ve been there three or four times a week for the pas t two years. Then on October 6 we had the surgery. Mum went down first to the operating theatre to have one kidney removed, which took five hours.

“Then it was my turn to have one faulty one removed and replaced by mum’s healthy one, which took six hours.”

Both operations went as planned and the new kidney started working.

Suzanne says: “I’m so relieved. I’ve had so many complications in the past and was terrified that Mum would have gone through so much for nothing.

“But her kidney is working inside me. I have to take anti-rejection drugs every day but my life is starting to return to normal and I don’t have to have dialysis any more, which is amazing.

“I’m already catching up with friends again who I hadn’t seen for ages as I was such a prisoner in my home. Mum’s given me my life back. She’s been through so much for me.

“I want other teenage diabetic sufferers to read my story and not do what I did. Doctors recognise diabulimia as a problem now – they didn’t really understand it when I was a teenager.

"You might think it’s great being skinny but it ruins your life. I’ve put my family through so much because I wanted to be skinny and not take my insulin.”

Rose adds: “It’s not been easy but it’s been worth it. My friends ask me how I can stay so strong. It’s simple. I’d do anything for my children and the best reward of all will be seeing Suzanne living her life to the full again.”