A MOTHER who was given a second chance thanks to the Organ Donor Register has named her son after the little boy whose kidneys ensured she could live a normal life.

Rachel Richardson, of Park Road in Barlow, near Selby, underwent one of the first double kidney transplants in the country in 2005 thanks to a mystery donor.

She had waited three years for a suitable transplant after renal failure was diagnosed in both her kidneys.

Following the operation she was told that the donor was a three-year-old boy, and she has named her own son after the donor.

“Without the transplant I would not have my kids,” she said. “I was only 19 when I was diagnosed so without the transplant I probably would not have had the energy. It’s given me my life back. The kidneys came from a little boy from the south of England called Jack who was three years old. He died of a brain tumour and I have included ‘Jack’ in my son’s name because of it.

“His heart and lungs went to a baby in London and his liver went to another patient up north. His parents gave everything. When you have lost a child it’s the hardest thing you could do but they did it. To lose a three-year-old and think of other people is amazing.”

Rachel and her husband, Steven, now have two children. Her eldest child, Ella Richardson, is now two-and-a-half, while Michael Keith Jack Richardson is one.

Rachel encouraged people to back The Press’s Lifesavers campaign to get an extra 20,000 people on the Organ Donor Register by the end of the year.

She said: “I would urge everyone to sign up to the register. I've had these kidneys for five years now and it’s given me my life back again.”

To join the register or for more information, phone 0300 1232323 or visit organdonation.nhs.uk or text SAVE to 84118.