MORE than 100 people in York and North and East Yorkshire fear this New Year could be their last, if they do not get vital organ transplant in time.

Across the region, 125 people are awaiting a life-changing organ transplant, and now the NHS Blood and Transplant has launched a special campaign to encourage everyone to join the organ donor register.

Beverley woman Tamara Hall knows the difference organ donation can make, after she received two liver transplants while she was too ill to know what was happening.

In 2007, Tamara was struck with severe liver failure. Ill for five weeks, she was admitted to hospital and quickly lost consciousness.

She remembers knowing she was dying and hearing talk of a transplant, but she awoke six weeks later to find out she’d had one liver graft which failed and a second which worked despite being from a different blood group.

Hospital staff had at one point given her just 10 per cent chance of survival, but although she spent six months in hospital Tamara managed to go home in time for Christmas.

Wendy Lingham, from York, had begun making plans for her own funeral when a heart transplant dramatically changed her life in March 2011.

Wendy said: “After Christmas 2010, I cherish every Christmas as extra special. I now love to cook Christmas dinner and celebrate around the dinner table together with my little family, how someone I never knew made sure we all stayed together as a family. My son couldn't be happier in knowing he now has a healthy Mum.”

The transplant service's figure show that this year, 83 people in North Yorkshire and another 34 in the East Riding have received life saving transplants, thanks to the generosity of donors and their families.

But sadly, seven people in North Yorkshire died while waiting for a transplant this year, while over the last five years 19 East Riding people lost their lives because a donated organ did not come soon enough.

York based organ donation nurse Joanne Brooks helps bereaved families whose loved ones have signed up to the organ donor register. She has joined the campaign for more organ donors, and said: "For many patients a transplant is the only option left and their life depends on families agreeing to donate.

"I urge people in to join the NHS Organ Donor Register and to tell those closest to them their decision. I know that many families find it easier to support donation when they know their loved one wanted to be an organ donor."

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or text SAVE to 62323. Once you’ve signed up tell those closest to you that you want to donate.