Why I'm backing organ donor campaign - mum who's waited six months for kidney transplant (From Bournemouth Echo)

Why I'm backing organ donor campaign - mum who's waited six months for kidney transplant

4:00pm Tuesday 19th February 2013 in News By Melanie Vass

PLEA: Sarah Parsons with her children Polly, 9, Billy, 15, and Charlie, 18

A BOURNEMOUTH mum desperately waiting for a kidney transplant is supporting a national campaign to increase the number of organ donors.

Mum-of-three Sarah Parsons, 43, has Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and her kidneys are currently operating at just 11 per cent capacity.

She has been on the organ transplant list since last August and has seen numerous people come forward and offer to donate a kidney but has not yet found a suitable match.

ITV has now launched its From the Heart campaign urging people to consider becoming an organ donor.

Sarah, of Southbourne, said: “I back any efforts to encourage people to sign up to the donor programme and I think the ITV programme highlighting the problem was absolutely brilliant.

“It’s only my opinion but I think that if you would be willing to accept a donated organ if you needed one then you should also be prepared to give one.

“I have seen around 16 donors come forward willing to offer me a kidney but none was a match.

“In the beginning I used to get so excited, we would have all the tests done and wait five weeks only to be told they were no good.

“I get quite low but I try and pick myself up again.

It’s quite an emotional ride. You hear all these wonderful stories about people getting organs from their neighbours but in most cases, it’s nowhere near as straightforward as that. Believe me, I’m going through it and it’s just not that simple.”

Sarah lost her mother to PKD and her eldest son Charlie has also recently been diagnosed with the hereditary disease. Her sister is also a sufferer.

She said finding a donor would make a world of difference to her and her family: “I just want my life back,” she said. “I get very tired and often have to sleep in the afternoons.

“And I can’t make plans because I never know how I will be feeling. It does affect my life at the moment.

“I just hope this new campaign is successful and more people join the register.”