Leeds Teen Saves 6 Lives With Donated Organs

“It does give me a lot of comfort to know she has helped save so many lives”

There's a call for more organ donors - as three people die everyday in the UK waiting for an organ and Yorkshire has the longest waiting lists for those hoping for a liver transplant.

In Leeds, last year just under 30 people from Leeds were organ donors. They provided 76 lifesaving transplants, but many people are still in need of an organ.

A Bramley mum - whose daughter's organs saved the lives of six other people and helped four others- wants the idea of organ donation to be less of a taboo.

"We should really try and talk about it a lot more because we'd have done anything to save Emma's life.. If Emma would've needed an organ - you always think about the gory details and the worst things - but I couldn't ever see any other option, what else would have happened to them? Emma's still out there - her lungs are still breathing, her eyes are still seeing."

Her daughter Emma was just 19 when she suddenly died of a stroke.

She was studying to be a photographer - and her mum says it brings her comfort to know her eyes are still out there seeing the world.

The family subsequently learned about a little girl who received part of Emma’s liver. She was in desperate need of a transplant and her dad was about to undertake a potentially dangerous operation to give part of his own liver, but Emma’s death meant he didn’t have to go through with it.

Catherine has also been contacted by a man who had received Emma’s lungs. He wrote to thank the family, and the person who donated their organs to help him.

“I have read and reread his letter and it does bring some comfort,” said Catherine. “It would be nice to hear from the other people, but I do understand how difficult it is.”

Emma's heart was given to a young woman in her twenties, a man in his fifties received her pancreas and one of her kidneys, her lungs and other kidney went to men in their sixties, while her liver was split between a man and a one year-old girl. Emma’s corneas were donated to four transplant patients.

Boyfriend Oli Dobson spoke to Emma’s friends and fellow-students at Leeds City College where he shared his feelings about the organ donation: “If 100 people were affected by Emma’s death, then 600 people have been positively affected by the lives she has saved.”

A new campaign launched today called 'be-a-hero' - encouraging more people to become organ donors.

To find out more information click here, or register on the NHS organ donor website.