Michele Burgess thought she was just tired all the time - only to be told she had just a week to live as her liver was failing.
The 56-year-old mother of two had felt exhausted for 13 years and said she collapsed as she was going for a scan and had a seizure, Birmingham Live reports.
Doctors found her liver was failing and unless a life-saving donor could be found for her, there was nothing else that could be done to save her life.
She was placed on the highest "super urgent" transplant list and doctors had believed her tiredness over the years was as a result of gastro-intestinal issues.
However, by 2018 she was so exhausted she could barely make it through the day with loss of appetite, chronic fatigue and short-term memory loss.
Her condition was compounded by high blood pressure, which was causing her liver to fail.
She was transferred to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she collapsed en route to the scan.
Michele, who works as a teaching assistant in Gloucestershire with children who have profound learning difficulties, acknowledges how perilously ill she was.
"I could hardly carry on", she said. "My short-term memory started fading. I was so weary, and my appetite went. Generally, I just felt very, very exhausted."
By 3pm in the afternoon she was so tired she needed to go to bed. Her gastroentologist suspected she may need a liver transplant at some point as she had a diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver, but that was incorrect.
At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, she collapsed and had a seizure. "That's when it all started off, really severely," she explained. "My liver had failed.
"After a few weeks they decided that I would definitely need a transplant. Without one, I'd only have a week to live."
She was diagnosed with non-cirrhotic portal hypertension and they didn't know what had caused it.
Michele was at home at 1am when she was phoned to say a liver was available.
"I was elated because I felt I was going to live for much longer," she added. "It was really that bad, my health had deteriorated so quickly."
All she knows is her donor was male and his 50s.
Her health has transformed since the transplant - she swims three times a week and has returned to work.
Husband Colin and her grown-up children Luke, 25, and Emily, 21, have supported her through her recovery.
"The transformation in my health is absolutely incredible," she added. "I don't get that fatigue I used to, I'm not on the loo for half the night like I used to be, and I'm back at work."
Her son ran the Birmingham half marathon in October to raise money for the liver unit that saved her life.
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He said: "At the same time that my Mum was waiting for her transplant, I was graduating from the University of Bath.
"She was given special dispensation to leave the hospital for a day to come and watch me graduate, which was really special.
"The support that my Mum received on the ward, and the work that all of the staff did to save her life, was inspirational."
Approximately 15,000 people die from liver disease in England and Wales every year and it is now the third leading cause of premature death in the UK.
The onset of liver failure can be sudden and dramatic, as it was in Michele's case.
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