James Gregory was born six weeks early at the Royal Bolton Hospital on 17th July 2019, weighing 4lb 14oz. He spent 17 days in the special care unit before going home with his parents, Rebecca and Daniel. There was no reason to think anything was seriously wrong.
A jaundice that wouldn't shift over the following weeks led to a paediatrician referral, blood tests at eight weeks and results severe enough to prompt an emergency call from Bolton to Leeds that same Friday evening. By Monday morning, James was on the children's liver ward at Leeds General Infirmary.
Surgeons performed a Kasai procedure at nine weeks old. The seven-hour operation removed his gallbladder, cleared blocked bile ducts and connected a section of his small intestine directly to the liver. Biliary Atresia was confirmed on the table. The procedure carries a 33% success rate. Six weeks post-surgery, James developed Ascites and Portal Hypertension. The Kasai hadn't worked. He was four months old and needed a liver transplant.
The family spent Christmas 2019 on the ward at Leeds. James went live on the transplant list on Christmas Eve. Rebecca and Daniel set up a fundraiser for the Children's Liver Disease Foundation Trust during the holiday period, which raised £5,265 in two weeks. Daniel was assessed as a potential living donor in January 2020; he matched on blood type but the anatomical size difference between father and infant made it impossible. Rebecca was a different blood group and could not be assessed at all.
James came home at the end of January with a Broviac line and community nurses arriving twice daily. On 5th February, a rash that wouldn't blanch and a level of distress that was immediately recognisable got the family to Bolton Hospital within hours. Line sepsis was confirmed at Leeds. He survived on heavy antibiotics, but the medical team's decision was firm: James would remain in hospital until a donor organ became available.
The family shared his story publicly. The post received 6,700 shares and 1,500 comments, with hundreds of people asking how to be tested as a donor.
Seventy-three days after going on the list, the call came. Surgery started at 7:30am on 7th March 2020. What should have been a three-to-four-week recovery stretched to nearly eight, with complications throughout. Covid lockdown arrived three weeks in; the ward implemented a one-parent rule for immunosuppressed children, and Daniel was sent home. Rebecca stayed on the ward alone with James until he was discharged.
James spent 209 nights in hospital across his first year of life.
Six years later, he is in good health, competing annually at the British Transplant Games with Team Leeds alongside roughly 1,000 transplant recipient athletes, and attending the Toughsheet Community Stadium on match days. He and his parents attended games throughout the 2025/26 season, and the family have already purchased season tickets for next season. Wanderers’ accessible offering was central to that decision. He and Lofty the Lion are well acquainted, and Amario Cozier-Dubery is unambiguously his favourite player.
This Saturday, James walks out as a Community Mascot for Wanderers against Wycombe. It is our Unite For Access fixture and we will formally open our new Sensory Room. Built in direct consultation with Bolton Wanderers Disabled Supporters Association and the Bolton Wanderers Supporters Trust, and funded in full by the Bolton Wanderers Development Association, the room represents what the club's commitment to access looks like in practice.
James' story follow’s on from the BWDSA chairman, Stephen Parry’s annual report which was published earlier this week. For the Gregory family, access to sport is what a six-year-old with 209 hospital nights behind him gets to look forward to on a Saturday.
Over 7,000 people in the UK are currently on the transplant waiting list, a record high. Three die each day because of the sheer shortage of organ donors. If you are not on the organ donor register, you can sign up via the NHS website. One donor can save up to nine lives.
Level Playing Field's Unite For Access campaign runs until 15th March 2026. For information, contact info@levelplayingfield.org.uk or visit https://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/