Kate Ball consciously signed the organ donor register when she applied for her driving licence.

Little did she know two years later she would be the one waiting for an organ as she desperately clung to life after a suspected auto-immune reaction to a flu-type virus attacked her heart causing dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle.

“I think people assume it will never happen to them, but a lot of people on the transplant lists had good health but something catastrophic happened. It’s really about saying this can happen to you and also it is personalising it. It affects a huge number of people in the UK,” says Kate.

Kate was 19 when she had her heart transplant. Her condition had rapidly deteriorated when she was placed on the active transplant list. Within eight days, she was fortunate to receive a heart. The only detail she has about her donor is she was a woman in her 30s.

Kate, like the many transplant recipients throughout the UK, cannot thank her donor and her donor’s family enough for giving her back her life and now Kate is helping to raise awareness of the importance of becoming an organ donor in the hope more people will be give someone the chance of life after their death.

“I just feel, it is an incredible gratitude,” says the 31-year-old.

She says her gratitude extends from her family, too. “It does not affect one person, it affects a huge network of people – my entire extended family. It is not just my life she saved, she saved the quality of life for the people around me and it is an incredible gratitude, not just to the woman who signed the organ donor register, but to the family.”

The recent ITV campaign ‘From the Heart’ led to 147,000 people joining the organ donor register. The dilemma is that despite becoming a donor, families can still refuse for their loved ones’ organs to be used for transplantation.

“It is a huge problem,” says Kate.

She explains the refusal rate stands at 45 per cent nationally which is why it is crucial those signing up for the Organ Donor Register discuss their wishes with their families.

“It is important to talk to their family about their wishes. In a situation where someone has died, no-one is thinking rationally, but if you have had that conversation it takes the decision out of their hands at an awful time.”

Kate, an advocate with the national charity Live Life Then Give Life, says becoming an organ donor is a simple process. “It is two minutes out of your day to log on to the website and one person can save nine people’s lives.”

The ITV campaign to recruit more donors led to an unprecedented number of people responding to the call to join the Organ Donor Register.

Figures for February 14 reveal there are currently 6,199 patients over 18 waiting for kidneys; 196 waiting for hearts, 225 waiting for lungs; 18 waiting for hearts and lungs and 458 waiting for livers.

There are 73 patients aged 18 and under waiting for kidneys; 16 needing hearts; 19 needing lungs; three needing both hearts and lungs and 25 waiting for livers.

According to figures for February 28 last year, the number of patients waiting for kidneys has dropped from 6,436 while the numbers waiting for hearts and lungs has increased.

Jayne Fisher, acting team manager and specialist nurse at NHS Blood and Transplant, who was based at Bradford Royal Infirmary, says: “Organ donation saves lives, it is as simple as that. But in order to save more lives, we need to ensure that many more people sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. Research has shown that more than 90 per cent of people support organ donation but only 31 per cent of the population are on the register. If it is something that you agree with, we would urge you to sign up now and talk to your family about it.

You can join the Organ Donor Register by visiting organdonation.nhs.uk call the NHS Donor Line on 0300 123 23 23, text SAVE to 84118 or through Facebook, the organ donation page or the health and wellness tab on your timeline.

You can also join when registering for a driving licence or car tax, applying for a Boots Advantage card, registering with a GP or registering for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).

Did you know...?

  • You are more likely to need a transplant than become a donor.
  • One donor can save or enhance the lives of nine people. A donor can donate a heart, lungs, two kidneys, pancreas, liver and small bowel and can restore the sight of two people by donating their corneas.
  • Donors can also give bone and tissue such as skin, heart valves and tendons. Skin grafts have helped people with severe burns and bone is used in orthopaedic surgery.
  • Ninety-six per cent of people who believe organ donation is the right thing to do.
  • 96 per cent of people who would take an organ if in need.
  • There are 30 transplant centres - hospitals specialising in transplantation - in the UK.
  • NHS Blood and Transplant has more than 200 specialist nurses in organ donation who approach families and help them through the donation process.
  • Forty-five per cent of families say not do donation because they don’t know what their loved one would have wanted. So tell your family you want to be an organ donor - don’t leave them to guess.
  • Forty-one per cent of families agree to donation when they don’t know their loved ones wishes, this rises to 95 per cent when their loved one was on the ODR.