A COTSWOLDS woman who thought she'd never walk again is now taking on a 1,000 mile walk for charity.

After a period of ill health, Valerie Pinfold, 50, from Chipping Norton, was diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) in 2015, a disease where the immune system attacks the bile ducts in the liver causing a build-up of scar tissue, dramatically reducing liver function.

After eight years Valerie’s condition rapidly deteriorated. By January 2015 she was on the transplant list for a new liver.

Just one month later she received the call telling her that a liver had been found and that she needed to make her way to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham as soon as possible.

“You live your life waiting for the call, when I got it, although I had a bag packed ready, it was still a shock” she said.

In the early hours of the morning she underwent surgery, but the liver failed.

The desperate search for a new liver began. Ms Pinfold's daughters, Robyn, 25, and Leah, 23 were told that the doctors had just 72 hours to find a suitable liver. Just before the 72 hours were up, a liver was found.

Throughout this traumatic period between the two liver transplants she had to be placed in an induced coma, meaning she had no idea of the danger she was in.

Whilst the second transplant was deemed a success, due to the sheer amount of blood that she had lost, her life was once again hanging by a thread.

Leah said: “The doctors told my sister and I that the next few hours were crucial.

We were also asked to make a very difficult decision as to whether to let our mum have a tube put into her throat to help her to breathe, but to our great relief, she woke up herself just in time so we didn't have to make that decision.”

Ms Pinfold added: “When I came to, I didn’t believe the doctors at first when they told me that I’d had two liver transplants. I can remember thinking that maybe I was in hospital because I had fallen down the stairs.

"I thought I’d never be able to go out for a walk again.

“I think one of the difficult moments for me was being pushed around by my daughters in a wheelchair in the hospital, I looked around at everyone else rushing around and thought to myself “I’ll never be able to do that again.”

She began to recover, but in the days following the operation she developed pneumonia and was forced to return to intensive care.

Two years later she has set herself the challenge of walking 1,000 miles in 2017, and with over 700 miles already under her belt, she is well on her way to achieving it.

You can read her blog at mylovelyliver.co.uk or to donate, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/valpinny