courtesy of the “Gazette”
By Erris Healy
28 year old Sarah Springett from Essex saved her boyfriend Paul Shepards life last year. The singer/songwriter donated her kidney to him after he was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy.
“IgA nephropathy is a kidney disorder that occurs when infection deffence protein settles in the kidney. Scientists do not know what causes IgA to form in the kidney. IgA causes permanent kidney damage which can lead to kidney failure. People with kidney failure need dialysis or a transplant.”- National kidney and urologic disease information clearinghouse.
Sarahs donation experience has inspired her to release a single titled “I hope you know.” Her single is in support of the first UK-wide organ donation campaign that was launched on November 3, 2009 by NHS blood and transplant. Each copy of Springettes single will include a link to the organ registration website and profits will be donated to the transplant trust. You can hear Sarah discussing the importance of becoming a donor, the need for more donors to sign up and her support for the campaign by visiting www.ihopeyouknow.co.uk.
Statistics from the NHS show that this year “977 lives were saved in the UK through a heart, lung, liver or kidney transplant.” Also a survey for kidney.org stated that, “more than two in nine people back organ donation but only one in five are actually on the register.” The same website gave a figure of 3,916 deaths a year are because of kidney failure-www.kidney.org
Yvonne MacFarlane, spokeswoman for the Scottish Government Health and Wellbeing office said,”The number of Scottish residents listed, as at November 8, 2009 awaiting an organ transplant is 663. The UK average waiting time to transplant in days is a heart=103 days, lung= 406 days, liver= 95 days and a kidney= 265 days. As you can see the waiting period is lengthy and a lot of people do not survive the wait.
If more people signed up the waiting time would be less. Sarah says, “watching Paul go through what he did was far worse than donating my kidney.” So, if Ms. Springettes story has inspired you or you are interested in becoming a donor, find out more at: www.orgondonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 1232323.
This Christmas you may just give someone a very special gift, you could give someone in need a second chance at life.
