IN Devon last year, five people died waiting for an organ transplant and local people are urging others to talk about organ donation.

Phil Bastone, brother of Dartmouth South Hams Councillor Hilary Bastone, received a life-saving kidney transplant in January.

‘I was waiting nearly four years’, explained Phil, ‘I’m very, very grateful to the donor and to the transplant team at Derriford Hospital.

‘Once I turned 70, I thought time had run out and it wasn’t going to happen, so I shut it out of my mind. My kidneys had been deteriorating for eighteen years, but slowly, and I was under the care of the renal department at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

‘In November last year I was told my kidneys were only working at seven per cent so I had to have peritoneal dialysis. Its better than Hemodialysis because I could connect myself to the machine at home and it would run for eight hours while I was asleep.’

Talking about getting the phone call to say that a donor had been found, Phil said: ‘I shook like a leaf, I didn’t know what to say, I couldn’t believe it happened, I still can’t quite believe it happened.

‘I’m slowly getting fitter and I want to thank the nurses, doctors and consultants at Exeter and Derriford. I would encourage everyone to be not he register, if you can help someone, if I could help someone, I would.’

Phil’s wife Jenny said: ‘We are extremely grateful to the donor. We’re just getting used to it now. Being on the transplant list restricts your life, we couldn’t go more than four hours away from Derriford in case the call came.

‘Organ donation makes such a difference to an individual and their family, please consider organ donation.’

With 43 per cent of people on the donor register NOT donating their organs when they can, because of family intervention, Jenny is also encouraging people to have the organ donation conversation with their family.

‘When people are alive and well, they should be saying “this is what I want”, it makes it easier, so you’re not wrestling with it if the situation arises. Its been the passport to the rest of our lives.

‘I can’t put into words how good the staff are at Exeter and Derriford Hospitals, they’re fantastic and deserve a lot of credit, they work incredibly hard and we are so grateful. Its already making such a difference to our lives.’

110 people in Devon are currently waiting for an organ donation, with 59 people receiving transplants in the county last year. It was too late for five.

NHS Blood and Transplant is drawing attention to the situation in Devon during Organ Donation Week, September 5-11. This year’s theme is ’Turn an end, into a beginning’, emphasising how each of us could give someone the chance of a new beginning by telling our families we want to be an organ donor.

Organ donation is a relatively rare event in the UK, because although around half a million people die each year, only around 1% do so in circumstances which allow organs to be donated. As the families of potential donors are approached by specialist nurses and asked to support their relative’s decision to be an organ donor, it’s hugely important that families know what their relative would have wanted to happen.

Sally Johnson, Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant said:

‘We’re very grateful to every family in Devon who supported a relative’s decision to donate or who made the decision to donate on behalf of their relative last year. Quite simply, without them being willing to support donation, more than 3,500 transplants couldn’t have taken place in the UK.

‘Many families in Devon tell us they take huge comfort in knowing that their relative has saved the lives of others.

‘We recognise that families are approached about organ donation at a difficult time, but with almost all of us prepared to take an organ if we need one, we need to be ready to donate too. Think about what we would want others to do for us if we ever need a transplant and be prepared to donate.

‘Talking to your relatives about what you want is crucial as it is much more difficult to agree to donation when you don’t know what the patient would have wanted. There are 110 people in Devon waiting for a transplant now and they need people to agree to donate for them to get the organ transplant they so desperately need.

‘It is especially important for people from our Black and Asian communities to talk about organ donation. I realise that this is a very difficult subject but there are many Black and Asian people who need a transplant. While some are able to receive an organ from a white donor, others will die if there is no donor from their own community.’

If you would like to help others after your death tell your family your want to be an organ donor and join the NHS Organ Donor Register by visiting: www.organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 2323.