SHELDON and Lystra Jackson, the parents of sick baby Sheenece Jackson, are racing against time to shed over 100 pounds to save their only daughter. They have less than five months to do it.

Sheenece must have a liver transplant before she turns two next March, and with no other donor coming forward, doctors have told her parents, who share her O-positive blood type, they are compatible donors. The one obstacle is their weight. Lystra has already lost approximately 30 pounds through diet and exercise – but is appealing to anyone who can help them to shed the pounds faster to call her.

She needs to lose another 50 pounds before having tests to prove her compatibility with her 19-month-old daughter, who has been diagnosed with biliary atresia. This disease causes cirrhosis of the liver. In Sheenece’s short life she has already undergone two liv­er biop­sies, three blood transfusions and surgery to re­move her gall­blad­der. Every week she makes at least three vis­its to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, for different tests. Her eyes are yellow with jaundice, her skin itches and she is only a little heavier than the 12 pounds she weighed at birth. She also retains fluid, which accumulates in her abdomen, causing it to swell.(Trinidad Newsday)…[+]