Laughing pals who learned to crawl and walk together survive four gruelling transplants

Laughing pals who learned to crawl and walk together survive four gruelling transplants EXCLUSIVE: Nine-year-olds Noah and Ariana have supported each other since they met as poorly babies on a dialysis ward. Learning to crawl and walk together, their bond has deepened through four transplants - and their mums say they will be friends for life. The quiet corridors of Bristol Children’s Hospital would every so often be filled with the sound of two little ones running and laughing together – despite how gravely ill they both were. Noah Jackson and Ariana Sparey met on the children’s ward while having dialysis. Becoming firm friends, they would play together while nurses prepared their gruelling treatments. Between them, Noah and Ariana, both nine, have had four transplants – and been by each other’s side at every step. They learned to crawl together, walk together and will, their parents say, be friends for life. Noah’s mum, baby ballet teacher Beccy Jackson, 35, of Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, says: “They each have a friend who knows how the other one feels. Everything’s happened to them at the same time. It helps them to have someone who understands how scary things have been, all the highs and lows. They’ve had the same lines and tubes, the same operations. Nobody else gets it.” The pals compared their tubes and scars, and made up stories pretending that the wounds came from fighting tigers. Ariana’s mum, Hayley Little, 38, of Midsomer Norton, Somerset, says: “When they see each other, it’s big hugs.” Noah was just 11 weeks old when Beccy and his dad, Garth Jackson, 48, a pub manager, drove to North Wales to introduce him to his grandparents. “It was a blissful weekend,” Beccy says. “But as we made our way home, our world shattered. Our precious little boy started vomiting blood.” Taken to Bristol Children’s Hospital, Noah needed emergency dialysis, a blood transfusion and intensive care. After days of tests, doctors diagnosed Primary Hyperoxaluria Type 1, a rare genetic condition. “He’s missing an enzyme that controls how much calcium oxalate the liver produces,” says Beccy. “Without it his kidneys are, basically, calcified. All of these crystals go through his organs and can’t pass through.” Without treatment, medics said Noah would not live past five. To survive he needed a new liver and a new kidney. Beccy says: “I’ll never forget the sadness when they told us the news. Garth and I felt so helpless.” Aged 10 months, Noah had a liver transplant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where the family spent a month. It fixed the underlying fault, but Noah still needed a new kidney, which meant years more dialysis. He did not crawl until he was one, or walk until he was two and a half. Ariana, whose parents are no longer together, was born with renal dysplasia, meaning her kidneys did not develop properly in the womb. She was four weeks old in December 2017 and Noah was three months when their mums met in the parents’ kitchen on the Lighthouse Ward. Hayley says: “Beccy and I would just go outside for a coffee. We clicked straight away.” The mums and their babies bonded side-by-side as both their children needed dialysis, a blood cleaning procedure, simply to stay alive. Ariana, whose dad, Rob Sparey, 40, is a builder, was fed special milk through a tube into her stomach, which bears several scars. Her dialysis, four days a week, ran through a central line fed directly into her heart. The blood-thinning drugs she had to take meant a fall or a bump to the head could cause a dangerous bleed – which was particularly frightening when Ariana, aged four and unsteady on her feet and with a problem hip, fell and knocked out her milk teeth. Her older brothers, Camron, 16, and Jack, 13, describe her as “sassy, cute, lovely and funny”. Meanwhile, Noah had dialysis four hours a day, six days a week, for over five years. He was so tiny in his first year that he didn’t have enough blood to fill the machine, and it had to be primed with donor blood before every session. Jessie May, a Bristol charity that sends specialist nurses into the homes of seriously ill children, supported both families – beginning care for Noah in 2018. Trained to manage his central line, its children’s nurses were among the only people outside hospital who could safely look after him. But in 2019, a faulty piece of equipment caused blood clots in both children’s hearts, meaning they spent a month in hospital together. With pumps attached and lines hanging from their hearts, they talked to each other across the hospital wards on walkie-talkies. Beccy and Hayley remained an unwavering source of strength for each other, especially when Ariana had an unsuccessful kidney transplant in early 2022. A second kidney became available in November 2022 on the weekend that Beccy married Garth – with Hayley making a brief appearance as her bridesmaid while taking a break from Ariana’s hospital bedside. Thankfully, the second transplant worked. Four months later, in March 2023, after more than five years of dialysis, Noah finally had a new kidney. But it was never a perfect match and the years of dialysis took their toll. His kidney only works at around 30% and he will still need another. Today, the two families are inseparable. Noah and Ariana go to each other’s birthday parties and the families go bowling, to the park and to Butlin’s together. When Noah went in for a biopsy earlier this year, a surprisingly small nurse appeared at his hospital bedside with a clipboard, introducing herself as “Nurse Sassy”. Ariana knew all the terminology for every test and treatment. Beccy recalls: “She was so funny. We were all in hysterics.” Once Noah was home, the two families went out for dinner. But the children just wanted everyone to hurry up and finish so they could go home, lie on the trampoline and watch the sunset. Hayley says: “When she was in pain in hospital, Noah used to tell her: ‘It’s OK, Ari, I’m here.’ I think theirs is a friendship that will last.” TRANSPLANT GAMES Not long ago, Noah and Ariana were poorly children on a hospital ward. This August, they won three medals between them at the British Transplant Games in Sheffield, which bring together children and adults who have had transplants. Both competed for the Bristol Children’s Hospital team – cheering each other on from the side of the track at their fourth games. Ariana took bronze in the obstacle course. Noah took gold in the obstacle course and 50-metre sprint. “He was really, really good,” says Noah’s mum, Beccy. As a team, Bristol won 10 medals – five of them gold. The games are the highlight of the year for the families, who first went together in the summer of 2023 – within months of Noah and Ariana’s successful transplants. They have gone every year since, sharing a car and asking for hotel rooms next to each other. Next year, the games move to Birmingham and the pair move up an age group. When they are older, they can go on to the adult games and even World Transplant Games. Ariana’s mum Hayley says: “Meeting the donor families is also very special. Our children wouldn’t be here without their bravery.”