A baby girl who was born with a rare liver condition has been placed on the organ transplant list.

Eleven-month-old Paris Cowens has a condition called biliary atresia which affects only about 50 babies born in England and Wales each year. It means the bile duct to her liver is blocked, causing bile to build up in the liver, which poisons it.

As a result Paris, who is under the care of the paediatric liver team at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, is jaundiced, has a swollen stomach and is frequently admitted to hospital because of complications caused by the disease.

She was diagnosed shortly after birth at Bradford Royal Infirmary on November 25, 2008, and quickly underwent an operation called kasai-portoenterostomy at St James’s to try to unblock the ducts. But the operation was unsuccessful and complications set in. Two weeks ago she was placed on the transplant list and her family now faces a tense wait for a lifesaving donor to be found.

Paris is cared for at the family home in Hollingwood Avenue, Lidget Green, by her grandmother Sandra Jones, 45, step granddad, 38-year-old Paul Rushworth and her parents Tammy Cowens, 18, and James Jones, 16. A pager is never far away from any of them in case the call comes to say a liver has been found.

Paris is Tammy’s first child. While the adults in the family have shed many tears over Paris’s condition, Paris herself is a happy baby who rarely cries.

Tammy said: “She is poorly on the inside but not on the outside. I could not ask for a better baby.”

The family are also being supported by other parents who have been through the same experience.

Join the organ donor register at uktransplant.org.uk or call 0300 123 23 23.

*For more on this story see Wednesday's T&A