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5:00 AM 20th May 2021
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World Transplant Games Marks One-year Anniversary Of The Organ Donation Law Change In England

 
There are more than 6,000 people currently waiting for an organ in the UK. Three people die each day while on the waiting list.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the organ donation law changing to an ‘opt out’ system in England, which is helping to reduce the number of people waiting for a life-saving transplant.

And we are being encouraged to think about the impact that an organ donation has on families, and to chat to our families around organ donation.

Families are, and will always be, involved before organ donation takes place, so it's vital for people to sit down and have a clear discussion with their family members.

This allows for one's decision to be honoured and will help to raise the awareness around the importance of organ donation and how many lives it can save.

Earlier this year Transplant Sport announced that the Westfield Health British Transplant Games due to take place in Leeds this summer will be postponed until 2022 due to ongoing challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

They were originally due to be held in venues across the city from 5-8 August 2021 and would have raised the profile of organ donation.

To raise awareness of the new system for organ donation that took effect in 2020, two participants in the children and adult Leeds 2022 Westfield Health British Transplant Games teams, have told us their inspiring stories.

Erin
Erin
Erin is 11 years old and was a healthy born baby. At 5 weeks old, Erin became very ill and resulted in having multiple blood tests, which led to her being diagnosed with having a liver condition that was causing her to have trapped bile. This meant that there was time urgency to ensure that Erin’s liver was acted upon and at 7 weeks old Erin had an operation called the ‘Kasai Procedure’ in Leeds hospital.

At 5 months old, Erin’s family were told at Glasgow hospital that she needed a liver transplant and so the family travelled back to Leeds for the operation.
As Erin was such a small child this brought forward some challenges regarding the transplant.

Erin was added to the transplant list and within 8 days was found a donor match. Erin’s transplant was 9 hours long, however after the operation Erin looked immediately healthier, and her face colour almost instantly changed for the better.

Erin improved and recovered quicker than expected and at 6 months old she’d had the amazing transition from being a lifeless, sick baby to a much happier and very giggly baby.

For the first few years of Erin’s life, the family were in and out of hospital for her medical management, but Erin has been stable since she started school.

Erin’s first games were in 2012 when she was just 2 years old and the family have found that the games have encouraged Erin to be active and has become a great social event for her. Most of Erin’s friends have had transplants, as she has met many peers at the games over the years.

Erin’s mother described how the games provide equal opportunities for children who have had transplants to have a fair chance when competing in the different sports, as due to their regular trips in and out of hospital and their operations, many of the children’s fitness will be behind their age group.

Therefore, the games provide these children to have a fair chance at winning in their sports and in general allows them to create friendships with people their age who have gone through the same experience. Erin’s favoured sports are cycling, badminton and long jump.



Ian
Ian
Ian had his transplant on 28th September 2020 (post law change). He was diagnosed in January this year, liver cancer and hepatitis C and Cirrohsis of the Liver. He became poorly and didn’t know what was wrong. He was ‘binge drinking’, and of the mindset that the exercise would balance out the drinking.

But two tumours were identified and he had TACE treatment, chemotherapy injections and the followed by Ablation treatment a few month later.

He had to do a VO2 assessment have chest x-rays and passed these. The tumour was at the maximum size and Ian was on the waiting list for 6 months and throughout that time waiting to hear.

Ian who is a keen cyclist has completed Indian cycle tour Manali to Leh route multiple times and hope to do this again solo once he has his fitness back to raise money for St James Hospital, aims to join the 2022 for his first games as a cyclist.


For more informaiton
https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/uk-laws/organ-donation-law-in-england/