MADISON, Wis. — These days, if Kendra England invites you to join her for a walk, you may want to think twice. When she heads out around her neighborhood with her husband and son, they quickly discover she has no trouble walking circles around them.

“I am more active,” she said. “I didn’t have the energy or the motivation I have now. I didn’t think I would feel this good.”

Her renewed energy has been a dramatic change from 18 months ago, when England began experiencing swelling in her legs. During a visit to her primary care doctor in northern Illinois in January 2025, she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and referred to liver specialists at UW Health in Madison.

Cirrhosis is when scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue and prevents the liver from working normally, according to Dr. John Rice, medical director of the UW Health Liver Transplant Program, and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

“The goal with patients like Kendra is to slow the progression of scar tissue formation and prevent or manage complications, but damage to the liver usually can’t be reversed at the point of cirrhosis,” he said. “We have treatment options, including medications and lifestyle changes that can improve complications, but in severe cases, a liver transplant is often the best option.”

By July, testing showed England’s disease was progressing. In September, Rice recommended that she undergo a liver transplant evaluation.

“Dr. Rice told me this was actually good news because it meant there was something he could do to help,” England said. “From the moment I walked into the clinic for my evaluation, the nurses and my coordinator had everything organized. They made the process so easy.”

England completed extensive testing and consultations in October. By late November, she had been approved for transplant and was officially added to the waiting list.

Then, on Dec. 18, 2025, she received the call she had been hoping for: a donor liver had become available.

“I was both happy and scared,” she said. “I didn’t know what was in store, but I knew getting a new liver was best for my health.”

Before England’s surgery, the donor liver was preserved and evaluated using a machine perfusion system, which circulates oxygenated blood and nutrients through the organ outside the body. The technology helps keep donor livers healthy during transport, allows transplant teams to assess organ function before surgery, and may increase the number of livers available for transplant, according to Rice.

“Machine perfusion represents one of the most significant advances in liver transplantation in recent years,” Rice said. “It mitigates the damage done when a liver is removed from the donor, gives us valuable information about how a donor liver is functioning before transplant and allows us to safely use more donor organs, expanding access to transplantation for patients like Kendra.”

On Dec. 20, 2025, Dr. David Aufhauser, transplant surgeon, UW Health, and assistant professor of surgery, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, led the team that performed England’s liver transplant.

Her surgery was one of a record 134 liver transplants performed at UW Health in 2025, underscoring the program’s continued growth. Since performing its first liver transplant in 1967, the UW Health Transplant Center has completed more than 3,000 liver transplants, providing lifesaving care to patients from Wisconsin and beyond.

England recovered in Madison, spending the Christmas holiday in a hospital bed before returning home to Winnebago County, Illinois, to begin the next stage of her recovery. Aside from monitoring her surgical incision, she experienced few complications. About two months after surgery, she returned to her job in home health care. The experience has changed her perspective as a caregiver.

“I have a whole new outlook on being in their shoes and understanding what they’re going through,” she said.

England began her post-transplant care with the team in Madison, and in June 2026, she transitioned her appointments to the UW Health Liver Transplant Clinic in Rockford. Similar clinics in Wisconsin include Green Bay, Marshfield, Wausau and Waukesha, which allow patients to receive specialized pre- and post-transplant care closer to home while remaining connected to the expertise of the UW Health Transplant Center.

“We understand that traveling long distances for appointments can become a burden for transplant patients and their families,” Rice said. “By reducing the need for frequent travel to Madison, we’re able to make care more convenient and help more patients access the support they need in their own communities.”

Now, with renewed health and energy, England is doing what she loves most: staying active, spending time with family and looking ahead to the future.

Recently, England wrote a letter to her donor’s family expressing her gratitude.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said. “I hope to get to know them one day so I can tell them in person how grateful I am for the gift of health.”

Today, England offers reassurance to others facing a transplant evaluation or waiting for a donor organ.

“It’ll be OK. It’ll all work out,” she said. “They took great care of me. The doctors were so kind. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else.”

UW Health Transplant Center

The UW Health Transplant Center is one of just six centers in the nation actively transplanting hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs and pancreases for adults and children, with more than 20,000 organs transplanted since 1966. The center is home to the largest renal autotransplant program in the nation, as well as one of the nation’s longest-running living donor programs, serving kidney and liver donors and recipients. To register as an organ donor, visit heroicdeed.com.