(Pic: Andrea with Pierre at a press conference before their wedding at Shangri-la hotel.)

ANDREA De Cruz's life-saving liver transplant operation in May 2002 was a medical first here.

She was the first patient to receive an organ from an emotionally-related donor.

And it has since paved the way for more than 40 others to undergo the same operation to save their lives.

Ms De Cruz's husband, actor Pierre Png, who was then her boyfriend, donated a part of his liver to her.

It was the first time that the Ministry of Health allowed non-related living donors to donate.

Since then, donors who are emotionally related to the recipient have been allowed to donate their organs.

It is something Ms De Cruz's liver transplant surgeon, Dr K C Tan, is happy about.

His Asian Centre for Liver Diseases and Transplantation, at Gleneagles Hospital, has carried out 43 more such liver transplants.

That is more than a third of the total 111 living donor liver transplants carried out there since 2002.

Said Dr Tan: 'That is why it is so important to allow emotionally-related donors. Many times, if you were to keep it to within first-degree family members, there may not be a suitable donor.'

Some may be too old, others may have had hepatitis, yet others may have young children and so don't feel comfortable risking an operation.

Ms De Cruz, 33, is grateful.

LIVING LIFE TO FULLEST

She told The New Paper: 'As long as I have my health, I'll make sure I pack all my activities in.'

That includes going to the gym, jogging (She can do 4.2 km in half an hour), running her hair salon and spa, hosting engagements and starting a new business venture in Vietnam.

On most days, she spends a good part of her time at the hair salon, Cinq, at Telok Ayer Street, which she started with four other partners.

'When there's a shortage of staff, I'll wash hair and do hair treatment for customers,' she said.

Life is good now, but she still thinks of the cause of her health problems, and of how others continue to take that path.

Said Ms De Cruz: 'It upsets me that there are young girls who are still willing to take slimming pills, especially those that are not prescribed by doctors.'

She said it also upsets her to see non-prescription slimming pills still so readily available 'everywhere you look'.

'I'm sure the Health Sciences Authority is doing a good job, but the point is that with non-prescription pills, you never know.

'You are putting your life at risk and you won't even know it until it hits you, like it did me,' she said.

'With the liver, there are no symptoms. When it hits you, you are already in need of a transplant,' she added.

Ms De Cruz's condition back in 2002 was caused by her taking Slim 10 pills.

She said she was fine up to the point when she became jaundiced.

'I was still filming, still travelling, then it hit me overnight,' said Ms De Cruz.

Her message to everyone is that there are no short cuts to losing weight and being healthy.

'You hit the gym and you work at it. I have been working out at a gym for two years now,' she said.

EXPIRY DATE

One reason Ms De Cruz feels she needs to pack every day to the fullest is that at the back of her mind, she is conscious of having an expiry date.

'During my court case, the defendant's lawyer gave me 26 years to live after my operation. Assuming he is right, that means I have 20 to 21 more years to go,' she said.

But she added: 'Dr Tan himself has never put a number on my life. He always tells me I'll live to a ripe old age.'

Dr Tan explained: 'Medical science is advancing so fast. In the next 20 years, there will be so many more advances which can help to extend liver transplant patients' lives.'

That is something Ms De Cruz's husband is hoping for, but he is also a practical man.

He has prepared himself by buying a niche in their church for both him and Ms De Cruz.

Said Mr Png, 35: 'It's a very peaceful columbarium, there's piped-in music and nature all around. It's a place where people can visit their loved ones and talk to them.

'It's just a preparation for us. But you know, life is a lot more than us trying to outlive each other. And you never know what will happen in the next 10, 20 years to either Andrea or me.'

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Patients come from as far as Ethiopia

DR K C Tan started his living donor liver transplant (LDLT) programme in 2002, and Ms Andrea De Cruz was his fourth patient.

Today, he is celebrating his 111th LDLT with about 100 guests, including 19 patients and 19 donors, many of whom have travelled to Singapore for the event at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Ms De Cruz will be compering.

Ninety per cent of his patients are foreigners who come from as far away as Mongolia, Ethiopia and Russia. 'Outside of India, we are the only LDLT centre in the private sector in Asia,' he said.

Over the next few years, Dr Tan hopes to increase the number of transplants by increasing the number of surgeons.

'We also do research with King's College Hospital in London on acute liver failure,' he said. There is transfer of technology and skills from the hospital.

Dr Tay Khoon Hean, a liver transplant surgeon at Gleneagles Medical Centre, feels emotionally-related donors is the way to go.

'In Asia, the ability to get a cadaveric donor is very poor. In Singapore, there are only about 15 such organs available a year,' said Dr Tay, who has operated on 95 cases with Dr Tan.

The centre's survival rate for non-emergency LDLTs is 80 to 85 per cent at the three-year mark. For emergency cases, the survival rate is 75 per cent at the three-year mark. There was one donor death in 2005.

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This story was first published in The New Paper on Mar 7, 2008.