Bradford doctors' urgent transplant call

In the same period there were only six donations at Airedale General Hospital.

There are 106 people in Bradford waiting for a life-saving transplant, highlighting what doctors say is a desperate need for people to sign up to the donor register.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has now set up an organ donation committee to try to increase awareness of transplantation and to boost the number of donors.

Dr Paul Cramp, clinical donation champion and ICU consultant anaesthetist, said: “Last year, 34 patients from the city received the life-saving operation but every year, across the UK, more than 1,000 people will die or become too ill before they receive one – last year seven patients from the city died while waiting for the transplant which never came.

“Because of the shortage and because of the amount of patients we have awaiting transplants, we wish to do all in our power to create awareness and improve the rate of donation from Bradford.

“This week we would urge families to sit down and have a conversation about organ donation. Don’t put it off, let your loved ones know what you would like to happen after you die and if you want to donate make sure you sign up now to the organ donation register at organ donation.nhs.uk. This one act could potentially save the lives of up to nine people.”

Nationally, only 1.2 per cent of people in the South Asian community and 0.4 per cent of people in black communities have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register – yet these patients are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant.

It is possible to carry out organ transplants between different ethnic groups but doctors are more likely to find a blood and tissue-type match in someone with the same ethnic background.

Consultant nephrologist Dr Robin Jeffrey treats renal patients on the transplant list and he appealed for more members of the city’s South Asian population to register as organ donors and to consider living-related transplants too.

He said: “The average waiting time for a new kidney is around three years but this can double for those of South Asian origin because of the difficulty of obtaining a good match.”

To join the organ donor register, or to read the leaflet Organ Donation and Religious Perspectives, go to organdonation. nhs.uk or phone 0300 1232323.

'Operation has given me a second chance'

Shagufta Sharif, 32, of Brantwood Close, Heaton, waited two years before a kidney was found for her.

She said: “When I finally received my kidney transplant in October 2008 I was so relieved. I could start living again.

“I’d had kidney failure during the pregnancy of my second son and spent 18 months on dialysis. I wasn’t around for him or my eldest child. I was too sick and getting sicker.

“When the call came to say they’d found a donor I didn’t have second thoughts about taking it.”

Shagufta, mother of nine-year-old Ismail and five-year-old Eesah Ahmed, says the transplant has transformed her and her family’s life.

“You can’t put into words how my life has changed – it is completely different,” she said.

“Before the transplant I was a sick person sitting in the corner not able to participate in my family’s life and I wasn’t around for the boys.

“Now the operation has given me a second chance at life. I value so much the little things, like picking my son up from school and playing with my children.

“Nothing is a chore because I know what it’s like to have been given a second chance at life.”

Shagufta, whose brother was preparing to give her one of his kidneys before she got the donor call, says all her family are now converts to organ donation.

“They’ve all signed up to the register as have myself and my husband, Tanveer.

“My view is simple: if you are prepared to receive a donor organ, then you should be prepared to give.”