Real life
As a new mother faced the most agonising of challenges, her best friend stepped in to help
When Lauren Beckett and Kayleigh Taylor first met as office workmates, they’d never have guessed that they’d become best friends – and that one day, one of them would save the life of the other’s only child. ‘It’s amazing how life turns out!’ says 27-year-old Lauren from Toddington, Bedfordshire. ‘At first, we didn’t take much notice of each other. But these days Kayleigh is so important to me, I can’t imagine life without her.’
The two started working together in 2016. Back then, Lauren was a carefree, single young woman, and Kayleigh was nine years older, married with two children. Both were then payroll executives. ‘We were at different points in life, but over time I came to appreciate how friendly and easy to talk to Kayleigh was, and that didn’t matter any more,’ Lauren recalls. ‘We started meeting outside work – often on a Friday night, when I’d go to her place to share a takeaway.’
Kayleigh confided in Lauren that she lives with a health condition, Gilbert’s syndrome, causing fatigue and episodes of mild jaundice. Though a lifelong inherited disorder, it doesn’t require treatment because it doesn’t pose a serious threat to health.
In 2019, Lauren met her partner, Callum, now 24. Two years later, there was more exciting news – she was pregnant! Thankfully everything seemed to go well, and as her tummy swelled, there were no obvious concerns.
Lauren’s son Tommy was born in October 2021 – apparently perfect. ‘Cradling him in my arms, I fantasised about the happy times to come,’ Lauren says. ‘But 12 hours later, I was worried. Our baby looked yellow from jaundice, seemed cold and wasn’t feeding or passing urine. Doctors said he should stay in hospital.’
Two weeks later, after he’d undergone blood tests and a biopsy, Tommy was diagnosed with neonatal haemochromatosis (NH), a liver disease associated with build-up of excess iron in the liver and other areas of the body.
‘It was a dreadful shock. NH is life-threatening and so rare, even a specialist liver hospital may see only one case a year,’ Lauren explains. ‘Doctors told us they’d try to control it with drugs, but if those failed, our baby would need a liver transplant.’
Through November and December, doctors gave Tommy medicines and blood products, but those didn’t work for him, and he was getting steadily more poorly.
The baby was placed on the urgent transplant list to await an organ donation from a stranger – a donated liver from a child, or partial liver donation from an adult.
Meanwhile, Lauren, Callum and their immediate families were tested as potential liver donors –
