A woman who campaigned for and helped established the first national NHS organ donor register is backing a new NHS Christmas campaign.
Christine Cox, from Wolverhampton, campaigned alongside her mother Rosemary and father John for the establishment of the organ donor register, which was created in 1994, in memory of her brother Peter.
Peter died of a brain tumour, aged 24, and said he wanted to donate his organs before he died, with his organs helping 17 people.
Ms Cox is now backing the NHS’s Hope Takes Flight social media campaign, which is urging families to consider organ donation this festive season.
About 30 people in Wolverhampton and 500 people in the West Midlands face Christmas waiting for an organ transplant.
Ms Cox said: “Hope Takes Flight is a brilliant project showing how people can be connected through the altruistic gift of life.
“It shows how the Organ Donor Register brings hope to the 8,000 patients on the current waiting list for an organ.
“I am sure this project will help start the conversation that we all need to have this Christmas as families and friends gather.”
Christine Cox helped establish the first national NHS organ donor register after the death of her brother Peter [NHS Blood and Transplant]
One of the faces of the campaign is origami artist Joe Russell, from Worthing in West Sussex, who was born with cystic fibrosis.
A lung transplant saved his life 10 years ago when he was struggling in December 2015.
The 47-year-old said: “The difference is life and death. Without a transplant, I would not be here. Before my operation, even the most basic of tasks was beyond me because I was so unwell.
“I know my donor family must be heartbroken, and it is hard to find the words to say to them. I think they and my donor are amazing.
“I owe my life to a man I will never know, I think about him single every day.
Ms Cox recently met Mr Russell at an organ donation awareness raising event in Wolverhampton and said: “Meeting Joe was a great honour. He is inspirational and a tremendous ambassador and it is plain to see how his transplant has given him his life back.”
A lung transplant saved Joe Russell’s life [NHS Blood and Transplant]
Speaking about Hope Takes Flight, Mr Russell said: “It means the world to me to be involved. Since my transplant, I have been searching for meaning… and it is helping to provide that.
“I see it as my duty to use this chance for something that matters more than me – this project does.”
Mr Russell’s origami skills are utilised in the campaign, which includes pink and white paper planes, symbolically linking the stories discussed.
“For a long time, I’d been trying to think of a way to use origami for the benefit of others, so when NHS Blood and Transplant contacted me about the idea, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“I’ve spent a huge portion of my life either in hospital or too unwell to leave my home, often even my bed.
“Yet in nothing more than a piece of paper, there existed the whole world, the ability to create that which I couldn’t experience for real.
“Medicine has cared for my body, but origami has cared for my mind.”
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