FRIENDS FOR LIFE AFTER My bucket list bond with the parents of the donor who saved me
By dad who owes his life toAdam, 24
WITH every step he takes, humbled Mark Smith pays thanks to three people who gave him a new lease of life.
Super- fundraiser Mark is ploughing through a bucket list of adventures and challenges after a vital double transplant.
From the bleakest of futures, he now has a new zest and has become a proud father of two.
None of it would be possible but for organs donated by Adam Rogers, a 24-year-old peacemaker who was killed when he tried to stop a fight.
Mark has pledged to make every single day count in Adam’s memory. And backing his endeavours are Adam’s proud parents Pat and Dave Rogers.
They have become firm friends after Mark, 47, sent the couple – at that stage anonymous – a thank-you letter, via a transplant co-ordinator.
Mark, who had a lifesaving kidney and pancreas transplant, had just become a dad after years of trying for a family with his wife Caroline, 40.
HUGGING
He explained: “I wanted to share this amazing news with my donor’s family, how their gift hadn’t just saved one life, it had created a new life, a family.”
Just two weeks later he got a reply, and after more letters they finally met up in the summer of 2011 – on the second anniversary of his transplants.
Pat, 67, and Dave, 86, told Mark how Adam had signed up to the organ donor register – and they honoured his wishes after he was killed in Bradford, West Yorks. A teenager was sentenced to four years for manslaughter.
Pat said: “Hugging Mark was so special, feeling his heart beat and knowing we’d done the right thing in the middle of a horrendous situation.
“Adam would’ve been a lovely dad, so seeing that Mark and Caroline had managed to become parents because of Adam was especially touching.”
Mark could empathise with the couple’s pain after losing a younger brother in a road accident a few years earlier.
He also learned how Adam’s organs saved four other lives – his lungs went to a 66-year-old man, his heart to a 53-year-old, his liver to a 54-yearold and one of his kidneys went to a boy aged six.
All recipients sent letters of thanks – but, unlike Mark, none had met up with Pat and Dave.
The couple told Mark they had set up a charity – Every Action Has Consequences – in Adam’s memory. It provides information to young people on bingedrinking, violence and anger-management.
“It seemed obvious that all of us saw this as an opportunity to make the world a better place and I pledged I’d do anything I could to help,” Mark said. “Meeting Dave and Pat for the first time
was the most heartbreaking but also life- affirming moment ever. Their son had saved my life and they made that happen through their ultimate altruism.
“But I also realised the massive hole they now had in their family.
“I showed Dave and Pat a photo of our 12-month-old daughter Emily, telling them how that wouldn’t have been possible without Adam’s organs.
“Straightaway they showed me a photo of their new grandson, also named Adam, who was the same age as Emily. In that moment I knew this might be the start of something really special.
“That night I sat at my computer and started writing a list of all the challenges I would take on, to raise money for charity and awareness of organ donation.”
Mark has climbed Snowdon,