One happy Christmas

Dec 23 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

PARENTS Sam Lee and Simon Walker have every right to feel especially proud of their daughter Niamh.

For little Niamh is one of the youngest children in the country to have heart transplant surgery. Today, the Examiner tells their very special story. It is a moving account of courage and love which has helped them overcome the odds stacked so heavily against them.

The two-year-old’s return home in time for Christmas after an operation by surgeons in Newcastle is a timely reminder for us all to put our names on the NHS organ donation register.

The Government’s Organ Donation Taskforce has declared the public is not ready for the presumed consent scheme, favoured by Gordon Brown.

Yet the demand for transplant surgery is rising. More than 8,000 are on UK waiting lists for donor organs, but only 3,000 transplants are carried out each year.

The Prime Minister has said that if the number of volunteer donors does not increase by at least 50%, then there will be a return to the idea of presumed consent.

The requirement here must be for people to sign an opt-out form.

Meanwhile, we wish Niamh, her parents and six-year-old brother Bevan every happiness and success in the future.