It’s a milestone for RPA Transplantation Services, and a lifeline for the 47-year-old who has battled ill health since becoming sick at age 11 with auto-immune hepatitis.

The former nurse is now recovering at home with her three children after the 15-hour liver and kidney transplant in late May and said she’s never felt so good.

‘‘It’s only now that I realise how sick I was for most of my life,’’ Ms Welsby said.

‘‘I was so young when I first became sick that I never knew any different. I lived a normal life - I worked full-time as a shiftworker, I had three children, I went to the gym and played sport.’’

It wasn’t until a decade ago that the symptoms she’d become accustomed to - fatigue, weakness and loss of appetite - started to impact on her daily life.

‘‘I started to get really sick - I had to stop work, I was no longer strong enough to go to the gym, and I was in and out of hospital with kidney infections and liver problems,’’ she said.

‘‘Then in March this year I fractured my hip and needed a hip replacement and after the surgery my liver was really bad.

‘‘I was transferred to RPA where I was told I would have to stay until I had a transplant.’’

While 20 per cent of people on the RPA liver transplant waiting list die waiting, a match was found for Ms Welsby in just three weeks.

‘‘I can now walk around without getting breathless, my hands aren’t shaky anymore, my memory has improved, my speech is clearer and I have so much more energy,’’ she said.

For her kids - Jennifer, 19; Grace, 17 and Ritchie, 12 - life has changed too.

‘‘Last mother’s day we found mum unconscious in bed,’’ Jennifer said. ‘‘Now she’s here with us, not in and out of hospital all the time, and she can do so much more.’’

RPA Transplantation Service director Dr Richard Allen said transplantation had come a long way since the service started in 1986; largely thanks to developments in anti-rejection drugs.

‘‘When there’s a transplant in our unit it’s a great day - it’s really exciting seeing patients’ lives completely transformed,’’ he said.

‘‘People get liver failure at any age and for a huge number of reasons and, unlike kidney failure where dialysis is an option, there’s no other option for these patients - they will die without a liver transplant.

‘‘Sadly we still lose around 20 per cent of those on our waiting list annually because we don’t find a liver for them.’’

Dr Allen urged people to raise the difficult topic of organ donation with their loved ones, with around 50 per cent of families refusing to give final approval for donations.

RPA will hold its annual Gift of Life ceremony to honour donors as part of DonateLife Week, from August 2.