Over 1,000 people waiting for an organ in the North East and Yorkshire as transplant waiting list hits UK record high
NHS urges urgent public action as thousands face life-or-death wait
Over a thousand people across the North East and Yorkshire are currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant - as it is revealed more people than ever before are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the UK – but donor and transplant numbers have fallen.
New figures released today (9 July) by NHS Blood and Transplant reveal that 8,096 patients in the UK were on the active transplant waiting list as of 31 March 2025 – the highest number on record.
One of the patients on the transplant waiting list is Kerry Fear, who is listed at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle. She needs a heart transplant after a lifetime of heart problems.
Everything seemed normal when Kerry Fear was born but over the next few weeks she struggled to feed and was sleepy. At 6 weeks old a GP was worried after listening to her heart and referred her to hospital. Investigative surgery at nine weeks old discovered she only had three heart chambers, two holes in her heart and her two main arteries were the wrong way round.
Nothing could be done at the time but Kerry had Fontan surgery aged five to help her, a new surgery at the time. Over the next four decades Kerry had multiple open heart surgeries, pacemakers fitted and procedures to treat heart rhythm problems. The treatments started to be less effective, meaning a heart transplant is now the only option.
Kerry, from Yeovil, was listed on the waiting list under the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, in May 2024. The Freeman is the only hospital in the UK that can carry out heart transplants on patients who have had Fontan surgery, so Kerry is listed there and visits annually for check up/assessment – she will be there in August.
She said: “I’ve always got on with life and had a fairly normal life, the main thing has been not being able to be as active as I’d like, do sports.
“I have noticed my heart rhythm isn’t normal and a slow decline. I don’t feel brilliant, but I don’t feel terrible, but you can deteriorate quickly.
“I knew being listed for a transplant was coming. At first it was scary, you realise the magnitude of it, every time the phone rings you panic a bit. But as time goes on, you have to get on with life. I don’t want to miss anything or waste any time when I can do what I can at the moment.
“I’m continuing to work part time for a charity, walk my dogs when I can and enjoy family life as much as I can - my husband Nick, and his daughter Poppy, and I recently started kayaking as it is something I can do.”
Kerry, who is under Southampton Hospital for her heart conditions and the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, for her transplant, adds: “Most days I put waiting to the back of my mind. If I think about it it’s quite an odd thing – it could happen any time and I am used to surgery but this is very different. I don’t think too deeply about waiting, my transplant – I want to enjoy life now and do as much as I can, make memories.
“I have a really good support network of friends and family and I always will and always have been a positive and resilient person.
“It’s sad that there are a lot of people waiting, and a lot of them more urgently in need than me. I think I could be waiting many more years. I may need to need the transplant more urgently and that’d mean waiting in hospital and I don’t like that idea.
“From what I have seen people that donate their organs, it gives their family pride and comfort – their loved one has done something for someone else. Organ donation gives somebody else an opportunity for a different and better life.
“It’s a really positive thing and my family know I’ll donate all I can – you’re not using your organs any more when you die.
“My transplant will hopefully make a massive difference, I hope to just be able to live and do more physical activities than I have my whole life. I’ve got to 50 and I can’t run to the end of the road, my dream is to run a marathon. I’d like to be able to go on a few more holidays and not worry. A transplant would be confidence and freedom.
“I will honour my donor in the fact I will go out there and live as best a life as I can, and hopefully do something for somebody else. I’d make something of my life, I wouldn’t waste the gift.”