A special tea party has been held to say a massive thank you to families whose loved ones donated organs and saved lives.
The event, organised by Swansea Bay University Health Board and hosted by the Lord Mayor in Swansea’s Mansion House, coincided with this year’s Organ Donation Week, running from 21st- 27th September.
Across Wales, the number of people who have signalled their wish to become donors after their death has fallen, while the number of people waiting for an organ has risen over recent years.
In her speech, the Lord Mayor of the City and County of Swansea, Councillor Penny Matthews, said: “When the world felt like it was breaking apart, you chose to put it back together for someone else. In your darkest hour of unexpected loss, you looked past your own grief to offer a total stranger a second chance at life.
“Because of your strength, your loved ones live on, not just in your cherished memories, but in the heartbeats, the breath, and the laughter of grateful people across Wales and beyond.
“There are no words sufficient to repay that kind of debt, but please know this: your courage is not forgotten.
“Your loved ones are heroes, and you are the guardians of a beautiful legacy. On behalf of NHS Blood and Transplant, Swansea Bay University Health Board and the recipients who have been given the gift of life, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Diolch o galon.”
Kathryn Gooding, Specialist Nurse Organ Donation in Swansea Bay, said: “The event was held to celebrate our incredible donor families who think of others on their worst possible days.
“They are absolutely amazing. We keep in touch with lots of our families but it’s so lovely to be able to gather them here today together.
“There’s a huge need for people to sign up to the organ donation register. Deceased donations have declined sharply over the last year. When we meet families, we know comfort can be found when loved ones have registered their decision around donation. It offers them clarity so they can support what their loved one would have wanted.
“We are not always comfortable talking about end of life care, or death in the UK. Decisions around organ and tissue donation are part of this, but with consent rates falling, and our pool of donors decreasing, it is so very important to have the conversation and take, just 2 minutes to register a decision.
“Sadly, every day, someone dies waiting for a transplant, in fact 9 people a week across the UK. The waiting list now stands at over 8,700, and of that, around 250 of those are children. Currently there are approximately 350 people in Wales waiting.”
Jan Williams, Swansea Bay Chair, represented the health board alongside its Organ Donation Committee Chair, Nicola Matthews.
Jan said: “It is incredible how, in the darkest of times, families find it within themselves to give hope to others when they are experienced such a severe loss for themselves. That really speaks to the heart of everything that organ donation is about.
“It was a hugely emotional afternoon and it was so important to say thank you. Nicola and I were really grateful for the invitation to come and do exactly that on behalf of the health board and everyone in Swansea Bay.”
One family member at the event, Andrea Wallace, said: “My sister, Judy Finley, passed away in hospital in Swansea last December and we decided to donate her organs for three people.
“It makes me feel really proud that she was able to do that.
“It was her children who made the decision. I sat in the background and supported the four of them as they made the decision together. How they came together to do that was really, really special.
“Nobody knew anything. They all came from the point of being asked, coming together and debating what they wanted.
“As an aunty, I am so proud of them. And my sister would be so proud of them, you do get your fractious families, for them all to come together like they have been, it’s fantastic.”
Andrea’s message to others is to make their wishes on organ donation known.
She said: “Definitely talk about it and make your wishes known – every person can save somebody else.”
Christine Gamble and daughter Emma were also present to remember dad Phillip.
Christine said: “The four of us – we have a son a daughter – decided that we would donate when we could.
“The ITU nurses were absolutely amazing and they didn’t have to say donation, I just went up to the nurse and said, ‘You know he’s on the donor list?’.”
Daughter Emma added: “In that moment, when we had the news that there was nothing that they could do for him, I always say, to this day, that the light in that moment was the nurse. She said, ‘You know your dad’s got a real opportunity now to save lives?’. It was a really dark time yet it made a shining light to it.”
Christine added: “He saved three people’s lives that night. That gave us peace. We have had an update that they were doing well. That’s all I wanted to know, that they were okay.”
Now the family is encouraging others to sign up to the organ donation register.
Christine said: “We tell everyone to sign up, everyone needs to at least think about it.”
Emma added: “I got one of my colleagues to sign up yesterday, with it being Organ Donation Week. I talk about it openly. If everyone talks to 10 people and gets one person signed up, it helps.”
To find out more about organ and tissue donation visit the NHS Blood and Transplant website here – Organ Donation.
