Dyer: I've Been Given a Second Chance and I'm Going to Make the Most of It Friday, 24th Nov 2023 14:44 Blues legend Kieron Dyer says he’s been given a second chance at life and is determined to make the most of it having undergone a liver transplant at Addenbrooke's Hospital in September. Ipswich-born Dyer, 44, revealed in 2021 that he had been diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis and would require a transplant, liver problems having initially been discovered in 2002. Having stabilised in the period after that announcement, the requirement for a transplant became more urgent in the summer with the former England international spending several weeks in hospital before he finally went under the knife. “I’m alive, so that’s a blessing,” Dyer said when asked how he is going on last night’s Life’s a Pitch TV in which he talks in further depth about his health as well as his time as a player with Town, Newcastle and England. “Still get very emotional and overwhelmed by the process that I went through. The burden of someone having to die for me to be alive is just amazing. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make them proud up there. I’ve been given a second chance and I’m going to make the most of it.” Dyer started to realise all wasn’t well during a pre-season trip to Portugal with Chesterfield, where he is a member of Paul Cook’s coaching staff. Having returned to the UK, his symptoms worsened and he decided he needed to go to hospital urgently. “I still felt OK in myself, but I was swelling up everywhere,” he recalled. “That night, I woke up at about one o’clock in the morning, I had a real shooting pain at the side of my stomach and I thought ‘Damn this’. “I was banned from driving - shock! - so I just rang a taxi and from Chesterfield I got a taxi straight to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. I didn’t let anyone know, didn’t even notify my family. Just went into the A&E and they admitted me and I was there for nearly three months. “They were saying I needed a liver as soon as possible because mine had basically packed in. “I knew something wasn’t right. I was scared and for me to be scared [is something] because I’m quite mentally strong. I knew something was wrong. Luckily I did go in that day. “It’s tough for me to talk about the three months in hospital because I still get too emotional, so I won’t go into too much depth. “The number of false alarms where they think they’ve found you a liver. They have a team which goes to retrieve the liver by helicopter or car. They retrieve the liver and do all the testing on the liver. “There was one night that they woke me up about two o’clock in the morning and I waited for 20 hours for news. I kept asking the nurses whether they’d retrieved it yet because you’re trying to get mentally prepared for a major operation which is life and death, trying to stay positive, but you’ve also got the fear in you. “Then, 20 hours later, I had just dozed off and the surgeon came and tapped me on the shoulder and said that the liver was too big. And then you have to go through the process of waiting for another liver. I had a few false alarms, which adds to all the drama that you’re going through.” Coming so close only to be told the donor liver wasn’t suitable was very tough to take: “That was absolutely devastating. [At that time] I had no energy, one of the symptoms you have is that you can’t stop scratching and I was literally clawing my skin to pieces. It was terrible. “But one thing I will say, I was in hospital for three months and it’s an hour and a half from Ipswich to Addenbrooke’s, so it’s a three-hour trip and I had family, friends and people. I must had four to five people a day coming to visit me. “And they saw me at my worst, I was ratty, I was snapping, I’d fall asleep out on them. I’d take all my frustrations out on them. “I always used to think I was public enemy number one when I was playing, but this showed me how much love there is out there for me. And I will always remember that.” Current Town manager Kieran McKenna asked if he could visit, the two having briefly worked together at Portman Road. “He wanted to come to the hospital to see me and I’d only known him a month, I was only at Ipswich for a month with him, so I think that’s a testament to the man,” the former midfielder added. “He was on at Bryan Klug every day, ‘Can I go and see Kieron in hospital, can I go and see Kieron in hospital’. “But I knew was so weak, I’d probably be asleep by the time he came up, so I declined his offer. “It wasn’t for PR, no one would have known, it was just for him to see if I was doing alright. I just thought that was amazing.” Did he worry he might not get a new liver? “I was always confident because they way they do it is that you’re in certain categories and it’s all determined by your blood and by the time I went into hospital I became a high priority. I was getting a liver because within six months I could have passed away. I always knew I was going to get one, it was just being in a hospital for three months. “I said in my press statement about the staff, I used to moan about the NHS all the time when I was waiting at A&E for four hours or I couldn’t get a doctors’ appointment because they’ve got me on hold and I’m 35th in the queue. “But when it comes to life and death, they are absolutely amazing and they saved my life.” Recalling how he found out that he was going to finally undergo his transplant, Dyer said: “I think it was the third time they found me a liver and this time it just felt different. I don’t know why, it just felt that this was the one. “They said they were going to retrieve it. Again I was woken up at three or four o’clock in the morning and they stopped me eating straight away. Sometimes they know, they get a sense of how long it’s going to take to get the liver in, so you can eat and then you have a cut-off point. “They stopped me from having breakfast straight away and I was thinking that that was a good sign. “And then the surgeon came in and said, ‘I’m going to be seeing you in theatre in two hours’. I was like, ‘Wow, here it goes’. “I can remember it vividly when they were wheeling me down to the theatre. I had my wife and my mum there, it was just like, ‘Here we go, see you on the other side’.” He says the toughest time was when he woke up afterwards: “The operation was nearly 10 hours, so it was a massive surgery. When they’re operating on you and they’re trying to get a new liver in and trying to save you’re life, they’re not very delicate in there, so when you wake up that first day, that was probably when I mentally quit. “When I woke up from surgery, I was asking them to just let me go, ‘I can’t do this’, I couldn’t go through that pain. “I don’t want to hear any woman talking about childbirth being the most pain. Trust me, getting a new liver is! “It was like I was burning non-stop all over. It was really tough for mum and my missus to see because they were there when I woke up from surgery and by that time I’d got drips coming out of my nose, my mouth, I’d got drains coming out of my neck, two coming out of my stomach, and they were hearing me saying I didn’t want to go on with my life any more. “It was so difficult for them that they had to leave the hospital, they’d actually seen me broken. “But the next day when they came back to the hospital, which is quite a funny story. They were really nervous coming to the room but as they approached the room they saw me sitting up, a cup of tea in my hand flirting with all the nurses! “So they were like, ‘Bloody hell, I don’t know what drugs they’ve given you in 24 hours!’. That’s the human body for you, once you get your mind right, the body is such a powerful weapon.” He says he is now making good progress and is aiming to make the most of his second chance. “I’m ahead of schedule,” he said. “My bloods are flying. I was on so many tablets to start of with because your body will try to reject your liver because it’s a foreign object. “But my medication is coming down rapidly, I’m allowed to drive now, which usually takes three months and it’s only been two, and they’ve given me permission to drive. “I’ve been using the gym, I’m allowed to swim, all signs are that my new liver’s taken and I can start fulfilling my second life.” He added: “Ninety-nine percent of the whole world only get one chance to live and I’ve been fortunate enough to get two chances, for which I’m really blessed. “What I’ve been given here is priceless, it’s just a gift and I’m going to make the most of it.”
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