Tracy home after second transplant

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 4

Tracy home after second transplant

PA Invercargill Tracy Holmes, aged 11, of Otautau, Southland, arrived back from England yesterday after hersecond liver transplant and said she had no intention of returning. The determination and optimism she has displayed throughout the two ordeals was evident as she was met at the Invercargill Airport by family and friends and spoke of her second operation. In spite of the direct 30hour flight from London Tracy was still full of smiles, especially for her father, Gary, and sister, Shelley, whom she had not seen for about three months. Tracy’s mother, Mrs Ngaire Holmes, who has been with Tracy in England, shares her daughter’s enthusiasm. “It’s a new year, a new liver and a new life, we hope,” she said. Although Tracy was feeling the heat as she returned on Invercargill’s hottest day this month, she said it was great to be back and was looking forward to returning to school next month. She was going to enjoy “lots of

things” now she was home and particularly has her eye on netball, which she was not able to play before. A back problem that put Tracy back in Cambridge's Addenbrookes Hospital in December was still causing pain, but

exercise should clear up the problem. She is walking slowly because of it and has spent time in a wheelchair.

The complaint occurred because her body could not support the weight she had put on through taking steroids.