Corsham transplant patient adds weight to register appeal (From Wiltshire Times)

Corsham transplant patient adds weight to register appeal

11:00am Saturday 7th November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Corsham man Dick Cooke is backing a campaign to promote organ donation after undergoing a lifesaving kidney transplant last year.

Mr Cooke, 54, of Charlwood Road, was given a new lease of life after family friend Victoria Conrad, who works as a nurse at Box Surgery, offered to give him one of her kidneys.

He said: “It’s almost a year since my operation now and I am feeling really well. I can do so many things I couldn’t before and have such a better quality of life.”

He added that dialysis patients are given an average of five years to live without a transplant and he had been on dialysis for five years when his operation took place.

“My life expectancy has now increased to 15 years.

“There are so many things you take for granted when you are well, such as the little things like being able to eat chocolate, potatoes and oranges.

“Those things are potentially fatal for dialysis patients due to the potassium levels in the foods.”

The self-employed landscape architect and tree consultant added that since his operation at Southmead Hospital, Bristol on December 2 2008 he has enjoyed a holiday to Cyprus.

He said travelling had been a nightmare before his operation as it involved months of blood tests beforehand.

“I am so grateful to Victoria for what she has given me and would encourage people to sign up to organ donation online because on average three people die every day waiting for an organ.”

His friend of more than 20 years, Mrs Conrad, of Broadmead, said giving Mr Cooke her kidney was the best thing she has ever done.

She said: “Organ donation is the best thing I have ever done, aside from having my kids.

“Just seeing Dick on dialysis and knowing his wife couldn’t donate her kidney as they weren’t a match, I thought ‘he could have one of mine’.”

The friends are supporting the first UK-wide multimedia campaign which was launched earlier this month to promote organ donation.

The NHS campaign comes as new research reveals that 96 per cent of people would accept an organ if they needed one, but only 27 per cent of have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register.

For more information, log onto www.uktransplant.org.uk.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)