Organ Donation Week 2025

This week is Organ Donation Week – and we’re joining the national campaign to get more people to sign up as organ donors to help save lives.

Organ donation is the gift of an organ to help someone who needs a transplant. Thousands of lives in the UK are saved or transformed each year by organ transplants.

There are currently more than 8000 people in need of a transplant to save or improve their lives. Thanks to 2,394 amazing people who donated, last year 4,583 people had their lives transformed through organ donation, but sadly more than 400 people died waiting for their transplant.

If you want to become a donor after you die you could save and improve the lives of up to nine people through organ donation and even more if you also donate tissue.

Organs that can be donated by people who have died include heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, liver and small bowel.

Tissue such as skin, bone and heart valves can also be used to save and improve people’s lives, and corneas can help to restore people’s sight.

Someone will die today, waiting for an organ transplant. If more people confirmed their decisions as organ donors, we could save and transform more lives and stop the heartache of too many people dying waiting.

If you want to be a donor, being on the NHS Organ Donor Register makes it more likely to happen.

The NHS Organ Donor Register is the only place to record your decision about organ donation and make your choices clear. Specialist Nurses for Organ Donation will only access the decision you recorded on the Register when end of life care has begun.

You can choose to donate some or all your organs and tissue, and you can amend or withdraw a registration at any time. If there is no recorded decision for you, in the UK your consent may be deemed. Deemed consent means that you have no objection to being a donor providing you have not opted out or are not in an excluded group.

You can confirm your decision on the NHS Organ Donation register here; https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision/

Alternatively, visit https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ register via the NHS app in England or Wales, or call 0300 123 23 23.

Paul's story

Paul Hendy-Gardner works at our hospital. Paul lost his nephew earlier this year, following a road traffic collision. The 18-year-old had registered as an organ donor – and Paul describes how this decision led to the gift of life for others while bringing some solace at a time of grief.

Losing my nephew and the gift of organ donation

As a healthcare professional, I’ve spent my career at the frontline, the last 8 years in Accident and Emergency. I've comforted families, advocated for patients, and witnessed moments of both devastation and hope. Nothing in my training or experience prepared me for the day I stood on the other side as a grieving uncle, watching my 18-year-old nephew fight for his life after a tragic road traffic accident.

It was a Wednesday morning when the call came. My sister's voice on the other end of the phone, saying words no one ever wants to hear. There’s been an accident. The next few hours and days were a blur — the kind of surreal haze I’ve seen play out so many times for others in the hospital, only now it was my family navigating this journey.

My nephew was on his way to work when the bike he was on was struck. By the time emergency services arrived, he had already sustained catastrophic injuries. When we arrived at the first hospital, he was intubated, sedated, surrounded by machines keeping his body functioning. I knew the signs. I had seen them before in patients with similar injuries. Still, I clung to hope — because that’s what you do when it’s someone you love.

He was transferred to Addenbrooke’s from the NNUH. Over the next 24 hours, a team of exceptional Neurological critical care specialists did everything possible. The next day scans confirmed the extent of the brain damage; the conversations slowly shifted from recovery to reality. My nephew was declared brain dead — a diagnosis that, as a medical professional, I understood all too well. But as his uncle, it was shattering news I wasn’t ready to accept.

I looked at my sister — his mother — whose world had just collapsed. Amid her tears, I saw a strength I didn’t know was possible. We sat together in the sterile and hot family room. This is where the organ donation journey started. My nephew registered as an organ donor when he was old enough to.

My sister was facing unbearable loss and the chance to let her son’s legacy live on. Working in healthcare I have attended the Organ Donation study day, and seen other families go through this. I’ve seen the profound ripple effects — the lives saved, the families given second chances. But I also know how impossibly hard that decision is during fresh grief.

In the end, it was my nephew who made the decision for us. We honoured his wishes.

The hours that followed were sacred in a way that’s hard to describe. The NNCU team treated him with reverence and respect. They guided us and we shared our pain, loss, suffering, and grief. They understood that although he was no longer alive in the medical sense, to us, he was still our boy. His body was still warm, his chest still rising with the help of machines, his hand still familiar in mine. The transplant team coordinated everything with compassion and precision. They explained what would happen, answered every question, and gave us time.

When the time came, we said goodbye — not in the dramatic way portrayed in films or television dramas, but in quiet, painful moments filled with love and disbelief. I kissed his forehead, whispered words I hope reached wherever his soul had gone, and watched the medical team prepare him for his final journey.

In the days that followed, we learned that he had saved four lives. His heart, liver and both kidneys. Each had gone to someone who had been waiting, hoping, perhaps preparing for the worst.

As we grieved, knowing that part of him lived on brought a strange kind of peace. It didn’t take away the pain, but it gave our loss meaning. His death, senseless and sudden, was not the end of his story.

Organ donation is often misunderstood. There are myths, fears, and misconceptions. Some believe it’s cold or clinical — but I’ve seen the truth. It’s a deeply human, generous act. It’s born of love and loss, of wanting something good to rise from tragedy. It’s a way for someone to write a final chapter filled with grace.

For our family, the grief remains. There’s also pride in his short 18 years, he has left a legacy that will endure for decades in the lives of others.

To those considering organ donation, or to those faced with the unthinkable choice of making that decision for a loved one, I offer this: it is an act of profound compassion. In the darkest hour, it offers a glimmer of light — not only for the recipients, but for the grieving hearts left behind. It doesn’t erase the pain, but it gives the loss a purpose.

Paul stands outside, with trees and greenery behind him, holding an A3 size pink NHS Organ Donor Card. The pink background has white writing on - that says 'Yes I donate', and a white heart outline.

Natasha's story

Natasha Leggett received a heart and double lung transplant in July 2005. This year, she celebrated her 20^th post transplant anniversary by taking part in the British Transplant Games.

Celebrating my transplant anniversary with a gold medal