Change too late for some...
LEADING the Opt for Life campaign has been the most rewarding and challenging task in my journalistic career to date.
Campaigns are the bread and butter of local and regional newspapers and an area in which the Evening Times has a proud history but this one somehow felt different, bolder.
We weren’t simply raising awareness about organ donation or attempting to drive up numbers on the donor register, we were asking the government to consider a new system of organ donation and one that a great many people had never even heard of.
Death and what happens to our bodies afterwards isn’t something people generally like to dwell on.
That probably accounts for the fact that more than half of the public is not on the organ donor register.
We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy campaign and it wasn’t.
Being grilled by MSPs at the Public Petitions Committee and was one of the most daunting things I’ve ever been asked to do.
We faced opposition, including from those medical profession, and it was difficult to question their judgment.
However, the one constant was the level of public support, particularly those who had experienced the agony of waiting for a transplant.
I interviewed many families and patients but there is one person who sticks in my mind.
Anders Gibson was 34 and suffering from cystic fibrosis and spoke eloquently about the benefits of an opt-out system for our campaign.
His health had deteriorated and he knew that time was running out to get a lung transplant.
The call did come to summon him for surgery, but Anders died days after the operation – it had simply come too late.
I hope his family are proud that he played a part in a change of law that will offer hope to others like him.