Amanda beats odds to hit 50

Amanda Comer never thought this time would come. Given six months to live aged 34, the only thing she could think of was how to say goodbye to her children.

But 16 years later, avid Wolves fan Amanda has survived both a rejected liver transplant and cancer to organise her 50th birthday party.

In 1992, Amanda was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), a condition which destroys the liver and for which there is no cure.

The disease is not related to alcohol and normally only affects women over 40. The only option for the mother of seven from Lanesfield, Wolverhampton, was to have a liver transplant on June 25, 1992.

“I never drank much so I couldn’t believe it when they said it was cirrhosis. I had been ill for about two years,” said Amanda, of Crawford Avenue.

“I was told I had six months to live, I had no idea how I was going to tell my children.”

But a donor was found in the Republic of Ireland. After a nine-hour operation Amanda and her family hoped the worst was behind them.

But her body began to reject the liver and a large blood clot developed.

“I had to have another operation and they fully expected me to die on the operating table”, Amanda said.

Since that time Amanda has embraced life to the fullest, learning to drive, marrying JCB driver husband Michael, aged 37, and giving birth to son Kieran, now aged 12.

Tragedy almost struck again six years ago when Amanda suffered from cancer and had to have part of her breast removed as well as undergo chemotherapy.

Amanda will celebrate with more than 100 relatives and friends next Friday at Woodcross Club, Woodcross Lane, Bilston. She will be joined by Kieran and her other children Andrew, 30, Ian, 28, Stephen, 26, Matthew, 23 and Tammy, 21.