Not many people can say they have saved someone’s life – but showjumper Letty Fenlon has done just that, donating part of her liver to save a baby she had never met.
The 27-year-old, who works for Charlie Johnston Racing as a rider and HGV driver, underwent major surgery in aid of Helin Dinler, who was diagnosed with rare liver disease biliary atresia shortly after she was born.
Doctors said Helin would die without a transplant. But thanks to Letty, she is now enjoying every moment of the life her family feared she would not have.
Letty told H&H she happened to see an appeal Helin’s mother Anna Shushura had put on Facebook.
“I thought, why not!” she said. “Everyone jokes that my liver is the only thing that works in my body; I’ve broken so many bones falling off horses and my brain doesn’t work too well, but I’m a truck driver and also drive gritters in winter; you’re on call and have to have 0% alcohol in your blood. I’ve never drunk as I had horses and had to get up for them, and had to have a job that paid for them. So everyone jokes that mine is a super liver.”
Letty fulfilled all the strict criteria for liver donation; she is a non-drinker and non-smoker, of the right weight and age, had not had recent tattoos or piercings or been in contact with certain diseases.
“I’m also blood type O-positive, so a universal blood donor,” she said. “Lots of people applied but it came down to one option, and that was me.”
Letty was told the risk that she would not survive the donation was one in 200.
“But that’s worldwide, and the NHS is very careful,” she said. “I thought ‘Why not?’ I’m very lucky; I got to the age of 25 and had ticked everything off my bucket list; I’d jumped at Hickstead and Bramham and the Great Yorkshire Show, and had run out of things to tick off, I’d had fun.
Picture by Kevin Owen – Digital Works
“I had to write my will – I’d left all my horses to a friend and she said ‘I’m not sure I can take all of them’! So I said I’d do my best not to have major organ failure.”
Letty said the screening process is complex; donor and recipient do not meet and each has her own team so there is no pressure on the donor.
“They never told me I was the only option but I figured it out,” she said. “Every time I went in, it was very much ‘How do you feel about this, and if you want to back out, it’s totally fine’. I went in the night before and they said they had had a deceased donor – but if I wanted to do it, two children could be saved.
“So I went in and you get Hibiscrubbed up, which was entertaining – they said ‘You’ve got horses, you could probably have done this at home!’”
Letty played down the six-hour surgery she underwent at St James’ Hospital in Leeds, in May, during which a third of her liver was taken out to give Helin.
“I was in a lot of pain but that’s just like riding!” she said. “They’d asked before if I’d broken any bones and I said yes, my back, coccyx, both elbows, wrists, fingers and toes – I’d had a CT scan and MRI and they said ‘Did you know you’ve broken ribs?’ I said no and they said ‘How do you not know?’ I said it was the one thing I thought I hadn’t broken, but that I fall off a lot! I think I horrified the doctors as they said it would hurt and I said I’m in pain every day so it can’t be worse – but it was pretty brutal.”
But Letty recovered well. She has been left with a six-inch scar from her breastbone to her stomach but scans showed her liver had regenerated perfectly. She was told to have three months off work to recover.
“You’re not allowed to profit from donation,” she said. “It’s illegal in this country, sadly for all the riders who talk about selling kidneys to fund their horses! But they pay your wage for the time you’re off. My work was so good; the job was waiting for me and when I got back, I was only given the quiet ones to ride, so I’m really grateful to them.”
Letty is still not fully recovered but she knows what she did was worth it.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “My life has decided to fall apart since I did it – my truck blew up, my eventer who’d been doing really well in his rehab went lame again, my lovely 18-year-old showjumper is in hospital with colic and me and my partner broke up – but I’m friends with Helin’s mum on Facebook now. So I see adorable pictures of her having adventures on the swings, or eating fish and chips for the first time; all the things she couldn’t do. That makes it all worth it.”
Helin’s mother Anna told H&H she could not begin to put into words what she would like to say to Letty.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” she said. “I still can’t believe how big her heart is. It’s major surgery, with risks, she’s been left with a big scar. But she did this.”
Anna said Helin had surgery in January but as it was unsuccessful, she was put on the transplant list six weeks later.
“It was heartbreaking,” she said. “The doctor said it might be about six months, but another one told me to ask friends and family as we might wait for ages, and sometimes the kids just can’t make it.”
No one in Helin’s family was a match so Anna put out the Facebook appeal.
“It was seen by about 3,000 people, and about 50 replied to say they’d like to help,” she said. “It reassures you that there are more good people, kind people, in the world than bad ones.”
After the surgery, Letty and Anna agreed they would like to be in touch with each other.
“I left a card for her and she left one for me, with a toy for Helin, a small horse,” Anna said. “It’s so lovely, and I think that tiny horse will be with her for her lifetime. I worried all the time but we kept in touch with Letty through the liver team. As much as I can say will never be enough; all my gratitude for what she’s done. She saved Helin’s life.”
Anna wants to raise awareness of the procedure and the need for donors; many people do not realise that livers can be donated from living people and will regenerate. There are 7,853 people waiting for a transplant in this country.
“If you can save a life,” she said. “I know it’s not easy, I understand. But I hope our happy ending will cheer someone up who’s having a tough time.
“I can’t explain the change in my baby. You look at her and realise there’s part of someone else in your child and it was life-saving. The doctor laughed and said it wasn’t a liver transplant, it was a personality transplant. She’s so happy now; active and alert, a different child. She doesn’t waste a second now, it’s as if she’s trying to catch up with everything she couldn’t do before.
“Everyone should know there are great people like our Letty. She is unbelievable.”
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