A RUNCORN couple have made medical history.

Trish and Stephen Flanagan are the first husband and wife to have received a liver transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Trish, aged 56, is making an excellent recovery after lifesaving surgery at the end of August.

Former minibus driver Stephen, aged 58, had his transplant in 2006.

Mum-of-three Trish, of Cunliffe Close, Palacefields, said: “We are so grateful to the surgeons.

“We also want to say a big thank you to the two families who gave us this wonderful gift of life.”

She only discovered she had the same genetic liver disease as her sister in 2003.

Doctors diagnosed primary biliary cirrhosis, a long term liver disease in which bile ducts become damaged.

Her sister, Edith Peters had a liver transplant but, sadly, died of pneumonia.

Trish said: “I must have had it for a while but didn’t have any symptoms.”

As her condition deteriorated, she was accepted for a transplant.

“I was losing weight and becoming tired,” she said.

Her first operation was cancelled after the donor didn’t match.

Specialists then discovered one of her tubes were blocked and took her off the list.

After investigating the problem, another organ was found and her life was saved.

“The tube untwisted itself,” she said. “I came home after two weeks. I’ve been fine ever since.”

Trish is now a carer for her husband who needed a transplant after tests revealed he had adrenal cancer.

He later developed Addison’s disease, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands.

He had a stroke in 2014 which affected the left hand side of his body.

Trish added: “Just as he was starting to walk again and his speech was getting better, he had a second stroke.

“This affected his right hand side. He can walk with a stick but is very unsteady and his speech is poor.”

The couple is looking forward to having all their family together for the festivities.

They have two sons Lee, aged 34, and Stephen, aged 32, a daughter Katie, aged 30, three grandsons and one granddaughter.

Trish said: “Christmas will be very special. This time last year I didn’t think I’d be alive today.”