Organ donor roadshow comes to York (From York Press)
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Our Lifesavers campaign aims to ease the agony for thousands of people on the UK organ donor transplant list.
We aim to raise awareness of organ donation and encourage people to discuss it with their loved ones; to reopen the debate on adopting an opt-out system; and, above all, we want to recruit 20,000 new donors in our region by the end of 2010.
Join the NHS Organ Donor Register online at www.organdonation.nhs.uk>>
Organ donor roadshow comes to York
4:02pm Thursday 25th February 2010 in
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- By Richard Catton » richard.catton@thepress.co.uk
THE daughter of a woman who donated all her organs to keep people alive after her death has urged York residents to do the same.
Louise Nicholson was speaking as the NHS's Organ Donation Roadshow which came to York to encourage residents to take a small amount of time to register as a donor.
Mrs Nicholson, 39, of Norton near Malton was in St Sampson's Square yesterday along with the NHS team to tell people how her mother's heart and organs, including her eyes, are now being used by others.
She said: “My mother, Sheila Dawson, died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 57. She had spoken about donating her organs all her life but I had never wanted to think about.
“One man has now been given her heart, and I still actually keep in touch with him. Another two people have a kidney each and one person has her liver. Another person has her eyes.”
She said: “It makes me feel wonderful to be honest. It took me a while to get my head round it but now I look on it as a miracle.”
Mrs Nicholson herself signed the donor register shortly after her mother's death in December 2007, and yesterday saw her father, Paul Dawson of Huntington, sign up too.
He said: “I have just done it today. I have been meaning to do it since Sheila died. I filled in a form and that was it.”
He said: “It should be compulsory and you should have to fill in a form if you don't want to donate.”
The aim of the NHS roadshow's visit to York was to close the gap between the huge amount of people (96 per cent) who say they would be wiling to accept an organ, compared with the 27 percent currently registered to donate.
Also at the road show was 27-year-old Ashley Parker from Acomb, who had a double kidney transplant three years ago after having undiagnosed renal failure for 20 years.
He said: “If it wasn't for that donor I wouldn't be here now.”
For more information on signing up to the organ Donor Register, phone 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk
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Louise Nicholson, daughter of donor Sheila Dawson, and Ashley Parker, who received a kidney transplant three years ago.
Danny Hill, of Copmanthorpe, with his four-year-old son, Noah, is signed up by Joanne Turner, donor transplant co-ordinator at York Hospital at the organ donation roadshow in St Sampson’s Square, York
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