Dozens of people in Bradford face an agonising New Year as they wait for an organ transplant.

New figures obtained by the Telegraph & Argus show 87 people in the area are waiting for kidneys, livers or lungs.

But they may face an uncertain wait because of a serious shortage of organs which has forced surgeons to use the body parts from drug addicts.

In December it was revealed that between 2002 and 2007 nationally, 450 organs came from donors with a history of drug abuse, which may affect the quality of the organ and raise infection risks.

It is said that the lack of viable organs is due in part to the fact that fewer healthy people are dying in car accidents, when organs can often be retrieved intact.

Department of Health figures revealed that 75 people in Bradford were waiting for kidney transplants in November, with one patient needing both a kidney and pancreas, six requiring a liver transplant, four people waiting for a new lung and one person waiting for a multiple organ transplant.

In neighbouring Leeds, 116 patients are waiting, while a further 69 were waiting in Kirklees and 32 in Calderdale.

Patient waiting numbers vary dramatically across the country, with deprived Tower Hamlets in London having 40 patients waiting - only ten more than affluent Kensington and Chelsea. The average number of patients waiting across all primary care trusts in England and Wales is 43.

Nationally, almost 10,000 people in the UK needed an organ donation as of November, with 8,600 waiting for kidney. An estimated 3,000 transplants are carried out each year, with one person dying each day while waiting for an organ.

At present, organs can only be taken from people who have actively chosen to be donors and carry donor cards. The Government is examining a proposal that everyone should be put on the organ donor register, unless they specifically "opt out".

A spokesman for UK Transplant, which supports organ transplantation and provides donor organ matching, said: "The 87 people in Bradford are among 9,000 people across the UK who need a transplant."

He urged more donors to come forward and join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson is reviewing the arrangements surrounding the organ donation register.

Mr Johnson said: "We know there is a shortage of organ donors and I am committed to trying to improve the situation.

"Following the recommendation of Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, I have asked the organ donation taskforce to look into the issue of presumed consent, taking into account all views to determine whether this is the way forward."

Last night, a spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Ministers established the Organ Donation Taskforce in order to consider options for improving the number of organs available for Transplantation."

Publication of the Taskforce report and recommendations are expected early this year.

e-mail: newsdesk@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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Case study

Jane Lovell only waited six months as a 17-year-old for her kidney transplant operation in 1991, but she remembers it as a "horrible" time.

Now an undergraduate psychiatric nurse, Jane, from Keighley, was one of the faces used to promote National Transplant Week last summer, and revealed how the period waiting for a transplant was both physically and mentally distressing.

"It's not just having to cope with the dialysis; you're on lots of medication as well and I had to visit hospital in Leeds three times a week.

"At one time I was on 48 tablets a day. It was terribly restrictive. But mentally too it was an anxious time. With hindsight, I think I was quite depressed. My mum says I was.

"I was doing my A-levels, which I failed. It had a huge impact on my career path because I wanted to be a teacher."

She is right behind the Government's proposal for organ donors, which would place everyone on the organ donor register unless they opt out.

"People fail to hold a donor card usually through apathy - they just put off signing it.

"They don't discuss their wishes with their family, and when a decision has to be made, it is often too traumatic and distressing for the family and they refuse," she added.

Jane, who still needs medi-cation, received her new kidney at St James' Hospital in Leeds after a dramatic Saturday night.

When an organ became available she was out with friends, and police had to comb the pubs and nightclubs of Keighley to find her.

She was eventually tracked down after midnight and was given a police escort to Leeds.

Within 12 hours of being admitted, she had the kidney.