Fourteen years on, the van salesman is married, with an 11-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.<\/p>\n
He has sent pictures of his family to the donor’s relatives via the NHS but has not received a reply.<\/p>\n
“I wanted them to know I didn’t waste it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Every day is an absolute blessing. I used to have no quality of life at all.<\/p>\n
“The fact that now I can go to the gym and have two kids is all just because someone said yes.”<\/p>\n
Rands said organ donations were falling despite the UK system of deemed consent.<\/p>\n
“You’d think that would increase the number of donors, but it’s actually dropped,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You can have a donor card in your pocket for 20 years, but it still comes down to the decision of the family.”<\/p>\n
Organ donations can only proceed with the donor family’s consent.<\/p>\n
NHS Blood and Transplant said there had been more than 2,000 lost opportunities for transplants since April 2021, because relatives did not know what the potential donor wanted.<\/p>\n