THERE aren’t many 11-year-olds who have the honour of being mentioned in a Parliamentary debate.

But Lindley lad Matthew Taylor was praised in the House of Commons by Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney this week.

The Salendine Nook High School pupil wrote to the Tory backbencher about his project on organ donation.

Mr McCartney mentioned Matthew in a debate about the issue on Wednesday.

Speaking to fellow Conservative Paul Uppal, he said: “I received a letter yesterday from a young lad aged 11, Matthew Taylor from Salendine Nook High School, which is doing a project on organ donations and the opt-in, opt-out processes.

“Will my honourable friend join me in congratulating Salendine Nook High School on engaging with young people and thinking about the processes?

“We can debate having a soft opt-in or opt-out process, but it is great that schools are engaging young people to think about organ donation.”

Mr McCartney told the Examiner: “I thought it was really good that Salendine Nook High School was getting its Year 7 youngsters talking about organ donation and doing a project about it.

“When I saw the letter from Matthew I decided to give him a mention in the debate the following day.

“Sometimes people say that Parliament isn’t relevant to people’s lives, but in this case we were debating an issue at the same time that the high school was doing a project on the subject.

“It’s nice when things like that link together.”

Mr McCartney wrote back to Matthew thanking him for his letter.

“I printed off a transcript of the debate and included a handwritten note thanking him,” he said.