PM: Max’s Law will give the gift of life to many more patients
THERESA May has said a change to the organ donor law will give many more Brits “the gift of life”.
The Prime Minister said a presumed consent system – to be introduced in England after a twoyear Daily Mirror campaign – would lead to more desperately ill patients having their “lives transformed”.
Speaking to the Mirror after she met patients on Merseyside yesterday, Mrs May said: “It was humbling to speak to people in Liverpool today who have had their lives transformed through kidney transplants. I was able to see first hand the life-changing impact organ donation has.
“Last year we saw the highest number of donors ever but there remains a shortage and so our plans to introduce Max’s Law and move towards presumed consent will, I hope, give the gift of life to many more patients in need.”
We revealed yesterday how the organ-donor change will be called Max’s Law in honour of Mirror boy Max Johnson.
Mrs May penned a touching letter to the nine-year-old to give him the news.
Max became the face of our campaign and underwent a ninehour transplant operation earlier this year.
Mrs May and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, following her announcement last week of the move to an opt-out donation system. Holly Shaw, 30, who had a second kidney transplant last year, told the PM she had waited for three-and-a-half years for her first transplant in 2008. She said: “It was just awful, basically, just hanging on waiting for that phone call.” In 2016, she had a second trans- after her mum donated a kidney. Speaking after the meeting, Mrs May said: “It’s great to... actually meet people who have benefited from kidney transplants and what they have told me is how that has transformed their lives and, therefore, how important it is for people to be willing to donate organs – and that is what the opt-out scheme is about.
“It’s about saying that, in future, rather than having to opt in to give consent that, when you die, your organs can be donated to somebody and give somebody the gift of life – that actually the presumption will be that your organs will be available and if you don’t want that, you have to opt out.
“What this will do, I hope, is mean more organs will be available for donation, more people will be given the gift of life and see their lives transplant formed.” The PM will change the organ donor system in England and Ireland following our successful campaign. Max received his new heart at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, and is now recovering at home with his family in Winsford, Cheshire.
More than 6,500 people are on the organ donor waiting list.