For Jackie Kirwan, the meeting brought her face to face with a part of her daughter she never expected to see again.
Kirwan, 65, has met Kim Smith, the woman who received her daughter Georgie Peterson’s left hand after a transplant, saying Georgie would be “over the moon” to know she had made such a difference.
Peterson, 33, from Liverpool, died on August 25, 2025, after complications linked to a congenital brain malformation that caused debilitating seizures. She had been on the organ donation register since she was 17.
After her death, Kirwan agreed to donate Peterson’s limbs. Her left hand went to Smith, 64, who lost her hands and feet after contracting a UTI and then developing sepsis while on holiday in Alicante, Spain, in 2017.
The two women met earlier this year and said it was “very emotional”.
Speaking at their second reunion, Kirwan said: “We referred to Georgie as our ‘human sunshine.’
“Her opinion was that the body is what you live in and it’s the soul that’s important.
“I’d decided that if Georgie’s donor recipient got in touch, I would meet them.
“Meeting Kim was unreal. We were both crying and she told me she was forever grateful and she would look after her hand forever.”
Peterson had been diagnosed with periventricular nodular heterotopia, or PVNH, after finishing her A-levels. The rare brain disorder causes neurons to fail to migrate properly during development and form clumps. The condition causes focal epilepsy that is often resistant to drugs.
Kirwan, a cleaner, said her daughter had struggled with eczema, asthma and depression, while her signs of PVNH included seizures and being hypermobile.
She said: “Everybody thought Georgie was great but she believed she was a burden.
“She struggled with eczema, asthma and depression while her only symptoms of PVNH were seizures and being hypermobile.
“Growing up, she used to bite her tongue, randomly wet herself and suffered from a lot of headaches .
“A week before her A-levels she had a massive seizure which we thought was exam stress.
“But three months later, she had another one and was referred to tests. Those childhood symptoms were actually seizures all along.”
Peterson, who was close to her sisters Steph and Sammi, later went to university, earned a degree in English, and loved dancing, the gym and swimming. Her epilepsy was so severe that she could not drive, work or use public transport alone.
Doctors implanted electrodes in her brain in 2023 to identify where the seizures were coming from, and she had another surgery last year. In May 2025, her seizures increased. A few months later, Kirwan found her collapsed in the bathroom.
She said: “I thought she was asleep at first.
“But her brain had been starved of oxygen and from the way she was positioned, we think she’d got up and had a seizure .
“Despite everything, her theory was always: ‘I’d rather it was me than have anybody else suffer from this’.”
Peterson died after three days in hospital. Kirwan said agreeing to organ donation was easy, but she had not realised limb donation was also possible until a donation nurse raised it.
She said: “It was the easiest decision to agree to the organ donation.
“Georgie had joined the register when she was 17 but I never realized families still had to sign on their behalf.
“The nurse asked me about Georgie’s limbs and I stopped for a moment.
“But Georgie had said it was the soul that was important and I agreed. You don’t get to know where the donations go due to patient confidentiality.
“But, I later received a letter from Kim, thanking me and asking to meet. My first thought was that I could meet her and hold Georgie’s hand.
“But then I realized that was wrong as it is Kim’s hand now, not Georgie’s.
“I think Georgie would be over the moon if she knew what it had done for Kim.”
Smith was placed on a UK waiting list for a double hand transplant and received a new working left hand in August last year. The former hairdresser underwent a 14-hour double hand transplant operation, but the right hand was not successful.
She has since become naturally left-handed, despite previously being right-hand dominant. Smith, an ambassador for Sepsis Research, said Peterson had given her a “wonderful gift” and that meeting Kirwan had meant a great deal.
She said: “It is extremely rare for a donor’s family and the recipient to meet.
“I wrote a letter of thanks six weeks after my surgery but a thank you never seems quite enough.
“In the letter, I had said I’d love to meet my donor’s family and in February, I had a reply from Jackie.
“We met for the first time at the end of March and it was very emotional.
“I didn’t think I was nervous until she walked through the door and I then was shaking like a leaf!
“But we chatted like we’d known each other for years. It was lovely.
“It’s so nice that we’re still in touch.”
The pair now want to raise awareness of sepsis and epilepsy, and keep Peterson’s name alive.
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