Organ donation

Linda: I've had an open donation card. The thing that I didn't know was whether or not John would agree with organ donation. So my message, my biggest message would be for people to, to talk about organ donation, to talk about their wishes, and of course their wishes might be that they would not wish to be an organ donor. Which is fine, it's a free country, we're entitled to our opinions.

Lesley: But on the final letter from the co-ordinator, she enclosed another letter from one of the recipients. A gentleman called [name] who had received Christian's lungs. And that letter was just absolutely wonderful.

Paul: It was meeting somebody who explained that, you know, getting a kidney had been like winning the lottery from his point of view. It was somebody who had been on dialysis for a number of years.

So was this a patient?

It was a patient yes. It was somebody I, I saw in the course of  work. In fact he said it was better than winning the lottery because he said it was, you know, even winning the lottery wouldn't have changed his life as much as that.

Cheryl: It wasn't a nice time for me because I'm very independent. And it was one of them times where sometimes I wished, you know, I just wished the call would come that I would actually have the transplant because I wanted to get back to normal, what you call normal. But, you know, I also knew, like I said, they were waiting for the right ones.

Deepak: After my transplant. It was quite remarkable, actually. I still believe it was a miracle transplant for all kinds of reasons. And, you know, the doctor said my goodness, you've kicked back, you know, almost from day one after the ten days when it didn't kick in. And I felt my energy levels peaked even more than before my illness. And so I was quite hyperactive almost, wanting to do this…, maybe trying to make up for lost time in a way.

Di: This whole experience, even with its hiccups and personal stresses, which is just me being impatient really, has been a wonderful experience. One that I would gladly do again and again and again and again even with all the hiccups because the reward at the end, not only for the recipient but for me, has been something that's going to stay with me forever. And it's, you know what greater gift can you give anybody than give them their life back or give them back to their family? There isn't yet it’s so easy to do.