Double transplant recipient Kate shares ‘miracle’ baby joy

It was seven and a half years until the now 38-year-old received the call that would ultimately save her life - and now she has fulfilled her dream of becoming a mum.

In 2019, Ms Hansen received that call from a family who had agreed to donate their loved one’s organs - a kidney and pancreas - which she described as the “gift of life”.

Ms Hansen who has had Type 1 diabetes since she was four, was having dialysis three times a week.

However, despite battling with a severe health condition that could kill her, said she wanted nothing more than to continue working and had a desire for motherhood.

The former property manager with Ray White Lara revealed how she studied a Diploma of Real Estate and became a licenced real estate agent all while her ‘miracle’ baby boy Harley who was born 13 weeks’ early fought for his life for five months in hospital.

Ms Hansen, who now works in property management and business development at Ray White Altona, to be closer to home, said her premature baby Harley, now aged two, was her “pride and joy”.

“I was pregnant with twins and Blake didn’t survive,” Ms Hansen said.

“My pregnancy was always going to be high-risk and I started to develop pre-eclampsia.

“We lost Blake in the second trimester, around 20 weeks' gestation, and I was admitted into hospital for the last eight weeks of my pregnancy.”

Ms Hansen said when tiny Harley was born, he weighed just 800 grams and would “literally sit in my bra”.

“He was 23cm long at birth and now he’s 12kg, he’s doing so well. He eats more than I do,” she laughed.

Harley was born with a congenital heart defect and required surgery to close a valve in his heart when he was just three months old, weighing only 2kg.

Ms Hansen said she suffered a stroke when Harley was eventually discharged from hospital and not long after was diagnosed with breast cancer which required surgery.