A PARAMEDIC whose daughter will need a liver transplant has praised her wonderful colleagues who plan to support a charity for the family.

Lisa Barwell spends her working life saving lives as a paramedic in Basildon and her home life in Maldon caring for six-year-old daughter Sophie who suffers from Biliary Atresia.

The condition involves bile scarring the liver and involves careful management and a likely transplant one day.

Her colleagues, Basildon paramedics Toby Langley and Sam Gilbert will be cycling from Land’s end to John O’Groats in aid of The Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF).

Lisa said: “I am so grateful to our NHS, not just as an employee but as a user, because if it wasn’t for them Sophie wouldn’t be here.

“Same goes for the ambulance service, there is such comradery in our team.”

Lisa has been a paramedic for 14 years.

Her daughter’s condition was discovered when she was six-weeks-old.

All the family can do is keep an eye on the condition and watch out for any concerning symptoms.

Lisa, from Maldon, said: “Although Sophie is quite healthy at the moment, the problem with the disease is that nobody knows what path it will take and a liver transplant is looming in the future.

“She is currently on regular vitamins because she doesn’t absorb her natural vitamins well.

“My husband, Richard, and I monitor her for signs of liver failure and check for signs of infection because of her anatomy following surgery.

“Sophie knows how to check her poo to make sure it is dark in colour and we are all very open with her about the disease in order to normalise it.”

The Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF ) run a national campaign each year to raise awareness of childhood liver disease, promote research and provide information and support to those affected by the disease.

Big Yellow Friday, an event organised by CLDF, takes place on March 1 and the family will be holding a charity football match to raise money at Heybridge Swifts’ ground ahead of the challenge in June 2019 which involves a 874 bike ride cycling the whole length of Great Britain.

Lisa added: “When Toby and Sam told me about the bike ride and that they hadn’t decided on a charity to raise money for yet, I suggested CLDF, and it made perfect sense.

“Sophie has even suggested to her headteacher that the school all wear yellow for Big Yellow Friday.

“She is quite a shy little girl so it’s brilliant she’s talking about it as it is a lifelong condition and something Sophie will habe to get a handle on.

“That’s where CLDF come in, they are great and hold all sorts of events for teenagers.”

It will take place on March 3, two days after the charity day. Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/lisa-barwell1