50,000 saved by organ transplants

MORE than 50,000 Britons are alive today thanks to organ transplants, official figures revealed yesterday.

The number of patients receiving donated organs has increased by a fifth in five years because of growing public support and medical advances.

A record 23. million adults and children are on the Health Service donor register, up by a quarter since 2012.

Figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show that living recipients include 3 ,300 patients with new kidneys, 3,900 with new hearts or lungs or both, and 9,800 with new livers. Last month, Scotland introduced a system of presumed consent whereby patients are automatic donors unless their families object.

Wales brought in a similar law in 2015 and there is pressure from doctors and charities for England to follow suit.

Sally Johnson, of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: ‘More people than ever are agreeing to organ donation. However, there is still a long way to go. Around three people still die a day in need of a transplant.’

A Department of Health spokesman said it was monitoring donation rates to see whether a policy similar to other parts of the UK was needed in England, so that ‘everyone requiring a transplant stands the best chance of receiving one’.