Transplant brings festive joy

A WOMAN is looking forward to opening her own Christmas presents this year after receiving the gift of a hand transplant.

- BY DAN WARBURTON

Kim Smith, 64, lost all her limbs after contracting an infection and then getting sepsis while on holiday in Alicante, Spain, in 2017.

She was later put on the waiting list for a double hand transplant and this year received a new, working left hand.

The former hairdresser, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: "This year, I will be able to help prepare the Boxing Day dinner and open my own Christmas presents. Christmas is a time where you're all together. I can't wait to be able to be with my family and be able to do things with my hand.

"Before, it would be boring for me. I used to have to sit and let everybody else do it. Before the amputations, all the family would come here and we'd have a meal together.

"Now I'm so much more independent than I was before. It's incredible."