Donor, Recipient Swing, Literally, Into The Future 1 Year After Liver Transplant

LONE TREE, Colo. (CBS4)- It has been exactly one year since 8-year-old Addilyn Hawks underwent a liver transplant that would save her life. Her donor was a nurse who heard the family's story secondhand.

"It's like you're flying when it pulls you forward," Addilyn said.

Hawks loves to swing; she loves it even more when her good friend Pamela Assid is with her.

"She thinks it's a big deal for me, I don't think so," Assid said.

Diagnosed with a rare liver disease as a baby, Addie would need a transplant by the age seven.

Pam, a nurse at Sky Ridge Medical Center, heard about the girl's story and offered to help.

"I'm sure that anybody else would have done that, that ended up being a match, it is just what you do," Assid said.

CBS4's Karen Morfitt met with the pair back then, shortly after their surgery.

"Thank you Pam for giving me part of your liver," Addilyn said in the first interview with CBS4 in March 2018.

"Everything went away right after her transplant and it was amazing to see how healthy she got," mom, Krystin Hawks said.

On Thursday, they were back together with Addilyn's parents celebrating a successful one-year checkup.

"You look back and you look at everything she's gone through you know that you wish you could take away even though they are just numbers on a screen for lab numbers they mean so much more," Addilyn's father Aaron Hawks said.

For the Hawks it means their little girl has her life back.

"She never had a lot of energy when she was sicker, not like this," Krystin Hawks said.

A life to do the things she loves, with the people she loves.