NI people died on organ wait list

The charity wants more people to sign the organ donor register

Three people in Northern Ireland died waiting for heart and lung transplants last year, the NI Chest Heart and Stroke has said.

The charity called for more people in NI to go on the UK Organ Donor Register as part of National Transplant Week.

Chief Executive of NICHS Andrew Dougal said there had been three heart and lung transplants for local people.

"Heart and lung transplant patients can die while waiting for a transplant," he said.

"So it is important that as many people as possible consider organ donation to ensure a greater chance of life for people waiting for transplants."

In January 2009, 12 people were waiting in Northern Ireland for heart and/or lung transplants and 299 for kidney transplants.

Ciaran Murphy, 22, from Glengormley suffers from cystic fibrosis and had double lung transplant surgery eight weeks ago in Newcastle, England, after being on the transplant list for two-and-a-half years.

"It was eight hours of miracle surgery that changed my life forever," he said.

"The more awareness there is of people waiting for transplants the better, waiting for the surgery was a very difficult time. I would ask everyone in Northern Ireland to think about signing the Donor Register today."

In Northern Ireland, 435,000 people are on the organ donor register, a slightly lower proportion of people than the rest of the UK.