A young boy has received an Australian-first transplant to prevent him developing diabetes, thanks to the urging of his mother.

A mother's determination has saved her young son from a lifetime of pain and cut his risk of developing diabetes.

Chanel Brown took to the internet and Facebook to research the best possible treatment for her son Gary's hereditary pancreatitis, a condition that had forced multiple hospital admissions.

Her efforts resulted in South Australian surgeons performing an Australian-first transplant on the seven-year-old boy, removing cells from his pancreas and infusing them into his liver, in a procedure that now offers new hope for other children with a similar condition.

Ms Brown contacted support groups in the US and found information on the procedure and then emailed "everyone I could".

And she urged other parents in a similar situation to never give up looking for a treatment or a cure.

"Just keep looking and go with your gut," she said.

The leader of the transplant team, Professor Toby Coates, said the success of the procedure was testament to how well his team had collaborated with other specialists interstate.

But he also singled out Ms Brown for her determination.

"She became aware of this as the optimal form of treatment for the condition in the world and pushed very hard for us in South Australia to be able to do it," he said.

Without the transplant Gary faced the prospect of becoming a diabetic, if he simply had his pancreas removed, or developing pancreatic cancer later in life.

Instead a team of surgeons removed his pancreas and sent it to a medical research team in Melbourne who isolated the islets, the cells responsible for producing insulin, before sending them back to Adelaide where they were infused into the young boy's liver.

Gary's doctor Richard Cooper said the young boy was living a miserable life before the procedure with constant pain, hospital admissions and restrictions on his activities, especially sport.

"The operations seems to be successful. We think the islet cells which we extracted from the pancreas are engrafting," Dr Cooper said.

"We're optimistic that will continue to improve and that his quality of life and getting back to school and doing all the things that he enjoys will progress accordingly."