A MOTHER-OF-THREE who has been refused a potentially life-saving liver transplant for 'non-compliance' has said: "I feel like I have been sent home to die."

Bonnie Frost, 49, was told in September last year that she would not be considered for a replacement liver, despite the fact that she would die within eight to 12 months if left untreated.

Ms Frost, of Dylan Crescent, Barry, suffers from a rare autoimmune condition called primary biliary cirrhosis. In 2007, she received a liver transplant from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but after five years her body began rejecting the organ.

Her condition has since deteriorated, and she has had to have three blood transfusions and been admitted to hospital as an inpatient five times since September alone.

Despite living in South Wales, Ms Frost, who is also a grandmother to Noah, 7, and Lily, 5, has had to travel to Birmingham for treatment since her initial diagnosis in 2004. She estimates she has had to attend the hospital on around 50 occasions, sometimes for as much as three weeks at a time, but has now been turned down for a future transplant because of 'non-compliance'.

The health board allegedly told Ms Frost that she would not be considered for a place on the list due to missed appointments, however she says that on many of those occasions she was unable to attend as she was already an inpatient at another hospital.

Ms Frost admits to having cancelled a small minority – she estimates around one in five – of her appointments, but argues that having been responsible for raising three children as a single parent, working multiple jobs in spite of her condition, and sometimes being just too sick to travel should not be a reason to condemn her to death.

Her understanding is that there is no medical reason to refuse her the possibility of a transplant.

She adds that since the decision, her and her family have received no guidance or offer of support from the hospital to come to terms with her prognosis.

"I feel like I've been sent home to die," she said.

"I've had no support, nowhere to turn to for help. We don't know what else to do.

"I don't for one second think that I'm more deserving than anyone else, but I think that everyone deserves a chance.

"My children have even looked into becoming a living donor, not that I would ever even consider that, but even then, you cannot have that done unless you're on the transplant list.

"They take away every chance you have."

After the initial decision by Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Ms Frost appealed and was sent to King's College Hospital in London for a reassessment, but was told they had found no reason to overturn the earlier verdict.

Ms Frost is now hoping to speak with a solicitor for legal advice, but admits that she is facing a race against time to have any chance of survival.

"I don't have the kind of money that I need to get a solicitor to fight to overturn this decision," she said.

"That's what I'd like to do, but time, obviously, is not on my side. If other conditions develop, they'll refuse me on grounds of ill health."

"The support I've had has been phenomenal. But when everyone asks me what's happening, I've got nothing to tell them. I don't even know myself."

A spokesman for University Hospitals Birmingham said: "A decision on whether to list a patient for transplant is made by an expert multi-disciplinary team. Our clinicians make these decisions on a case-by-case basis and with regard to the safest and most successful outcomes.

"If a patient is not happy with the decision, we do support them to seek a second opinion in another transplant centre."

Details on Ms Frost's condition and her battle to go on the transplant list can be found at www.facebook.com/fundraising.boonie.3. To help her fund her legal battle, visit gofundme.com/bonnies-organ-replacement.