The children of a woman given a kidney by a total stranger have written to their “hero” to say thank you for saving their mum’s life.
Mum-of-five Ann Gath, 43, said she felt like she’d won the lottery after a Facebook appeal came up with a match.
A fellow mum, Nicola Hinds, got in touch and said she would like to donate her kidney.
In December Ann had the life-saving kidney transplant and both women are recovering at home.
Ann says since the operation she is able to play with her children.
Delighted Holly, 19, Poppy, 17, Erin, 15, Gabriel, 10 and Saffron, eight, have sent a thank you card to their “hero”.
Saffron wrote: “Thanks for saving my mum” while Erin wrote: Thank you for giving my mum a chance to have fun again.”
Ann’s rare blood type meant she had been struggling to find a suitable transplant match.
But then Nicola, 36, from Doncaster messaged her and said she would be happy to donate if she was a match.
Ann said: “I never really believed that a stranger would come forward and donate.
“I never thought anything would come of it. I had to put it out there and see what happened. When I got the phone call to say we were a match, it was just like winning the lottery.
“It was just unbelievable really and very surreal. I realised I could do stuff with my children again and live normally,rather than being absolutely exhausted all the time.
“It was just getting harder and harder being on dialysis so it was just amazing and incredible.”
She told how after the operation her eldest daughter, who is at university,
told her: ‘Oh my god, you’re like a different person.’
Ann was diagnosed with Autosomal Dominant Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease in 2017 which means her kidneys were gradually deteriorating.
Ann, of Barnsley, South Yorks,. said: “I’m back to my normal self - I can go shopping and it’s not an ordeal and I can go for a walk and then make dinner for my kids.
“Over Christmas I was even able to play Uno and Monopoly with the kids.
“I remember as I was getting more mobile I was tickling the kids and I had a proper belly laugh. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.
“I’ve started doing yoga again and I can take my kids to the park so life is starting to return to normal.”
Mum Nicola, who has Mason, 14 and Tommy two, told how she saw Ann’s Facebook post by chance.
“I hadn’t been on Facebook before and created my account in December, so it’s pretty much divine intervention.
“I read it and was immediately struck by the picture of Ann with her children,” she told The Mirror. “She’d put on there about her rare blood group - O negative. I knew I was O negative.
“My husband was really supportive and was not surprised one bit that I wanted to donate.
“My eldest naturally had questions. He would ask me ‘Am I going to get poorly if I do this?’
“I made it my mission to do as much research as possible to answer every question he had to make sure he was comfortable. If he had not been comfortable I would have taken that into consideration before my final decision.
“But he came to understand it was very unlikely that anything adverse was going to happen to me but extremely likely that Ann would lead a more fulfilling life.
“I did not realise how much of a difference my decision to donate was going to make.
“The fact she is able to do all of those things she wanted to do but she was unable to do, makes me think that my decision to donate was the right decision. I just feel like now, the mission is complete.”
The pair are now firm friends after the surgery and were even discharged from the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, South Yorks,. on the same day.
Nicola and Ann also have met up around four times since the surgery and will be going on a trip to the seaside together in the Summer.
Ann, a Slimming World consultant, said: “We’ve become friends and it’s almost like we forget how we met - it kinda feels like we’ve always been in each other’s lives.
“She takes pleasure in how much it changed me. You can now see the whites of my eyes.
“Thank you doesn’t seem enough. She is incredible.
“I try to look after myself and to honour the gift that she’s given me and kind of live really. She is incredible. “