5 PATIENTS WHO HAVE A FUTURE THANKS TO PEOPLE DONATING ORGANS

FIVE people who underwent lifesaving transplant operations within a recordbreaking 36 hours at one NHS hospital have reunited to urge others to join the Organ Donor Register.

The two men and three women, aged between 23 and 67, received between them two hearts, two sets of lungs and one single lung.

A team of more than 40 staff, including five surgeons, were involved, with several coming in on their days off for the marathon session at the Royal Papworth Hospital, near Cambridge, in February.

The patients met up at the hospital six months later.

Luke Palfreyman, 23, of Barnsley, and Daniel Peel, 26, of Reading, both received double lung transplants.

Yvonne Dunham, 67, of Fressingfield, Suffolk, and Joanne Hext, 54, of Horndean, Hampshire, both had heart transplants.

Brilliant

Michelle Hemmings, 46, of Birmingham, had a single lung transplant.

Mr Peel described the hospital staff as “brilliant” and urged people to join the Organ Donor Register, adding: “If we can get just a couple more people signed up, donating their organs, and have that conversation with their families then that’s a couple more lives saved.”

Ms Dunham described herself as “one of the famous five”.

She said: “You just have to be thankful there are people who are willing to donate and families who are willing to agree to it because without them none of us would be having a future that we now have.”

Transplant co-ordinator Sadie Von Joel said it was a hospital record to complete so many transplant operations within such a short window of time. “It was a real one-off,” she said.

To join the Organ Donor Register, call 0300 123 23 23.