By BEN ASHFORD

MUM Cheryl Johnson had a life-saving kidney transplant — and wound up with the donor’s PERSONALITY as well.

Baffled Cheryl, 37, says she has turned into a brainbox since receiving the organ from a 59-year-old man.
She used to enjoy reading popular novels like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and biographies of celebs like Blue singer Duncan James.

Now the ex-bouncer loves high-brow writers such as Jane Austen and Russian heavyweight Fyodor Dostoevsky — author of Crime and Punishment.

She also swapped favourite TV shows like Corrie, Emmerdale and Jerry Springer for intellectual documentaries.
Single mum Cheryl of Preston, Lancs, said: “My brain power has definitely been boosted since having the transplant.

“I have always loved books — but I suddenly found myself reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Cells

“I’m going through all her books, one by one.

“I was telling my mum about Dostoevsky and she thought I’d gone mad. But I find it much more interesting than the books I used to read.

“You pick up characteristics from your donor. My temperament changed immediately.
“My son said I went stroppy and snappy — and that wasn’t me.”

Cheryl believes her donor, a man who died of an aneurysm, could have been a high-powered businessman or a scientist who studied ancient Egypt.
She said: “I used to watch soaps. Now I watch documentaries on the Egyptian pyramids. I can’t get enough of them. It’s weird.”

Cheryl’s health was transformed by the op last May after years of crippling renal failure.
Some experts believe her “personality swap” is caused by a mysterious condition called Cellular Memory Phenomenon.

They say characteristics are mysteriously “remembered” in body cells and can be transferred during a transplant.