'Hero' Student Gives Half His Liver To Save Dad

A student has told how he "jumped at the chance" to save his father's life by donating him half his liver.

Deraj Wilson-Aggarwal found out his father Naresh Aggarwal, 54, was suffering from liver cancer in November 2014.

The family originally planned for older brother Jared to be the donor, but after it emerged that he was too high risk, Deraj was eager to step in.

The zoology student said: "When we found out the risk was too high for him to do it, I was straight in there. I had stopped drinking anyway as soon as I found out there was a possibility I could donate.

"From then on I was basically badgering my brother to let me do it.

"Being a student, it was obviously a bit of a change, but it's also led me to focus more on my studies and other things apart from my life revolving around the student lifestyle of drinking.

"It has actually made me healthier overall."

Jared, 25, documented the family's experience as his brother and father underwent tests and the operation itself in June.

He wrote on his blog : "On June 17th 2015 my brother, Day, became a hero. At the age of 21 he put his life on hold to donate his liver to our dad who was suffering from cancer.

"This selfless act will hopefully extend our dad’s life by over five years.

"To say I was proud would be an understatement, for my brother has shown true bravery throughout the entire process of donation from the initial assessments, to the dawn of the operation and finally the recovery which involved four days in intensive care."

Mr Aggarwal said the operation had cured his haemophilia and cancer and he hoped to eventually be eligible for further treatment on his hepatitis C.

He said: "My extreme gratitude goes not only to the health service, the medical, surgical and nursing teams but in particular my two sons who are my heroes.

"At their tender young age they were willing to risk so much to give me another lease of life. I am extremely lucky and treasure the gift of life I have been given."

Hepatitis C is thought to affect around 215,000 people in the UK, with about a third developing liver cirrhosis.

A small number of sufferers with chronic hepatitis C and cirrhosis also go on to develop liver cancer.

Mr Wilson-Aggarwal contracted the disease after he needed a blood transfusion following an accident, but was given infected blood from the US that had not been tested properly beforehand.