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Help save lives, says singer who donated kidney to boyfriend
Sophie Goodchild, Health and Social Affairs Correspondent2 Nov 2009
A singer who donated a kidney to her seriously ill boyfriend is releasing a single to raise awareness of the need for organ donors.
Sarah Springett, 28, from Essex, saved the life of partner Paul Shepherd, 31, last year after he was diagnosed with a serious health condition.
The songwriter with band the Floe has recorded her debut track I Hope You Know to support the first UK-wide organ donation campaign, launched today.
The campaign by NHS Blood and Transplant reminds families they would want their loved one to receive an organ so it is important people return the favour by signing up.
Each copy of the single, released next Monday, will feature a link to the online organ registration form and profits will be donated to the Transplant Trust.
Doctors say Mr Shepherd's operation, at the Royal London last November, has been a complete success. Today, Ms Springett, from Kelvedon, urged everyone to sign up to the register.
She said: "I'd done the typical thing of having a donor card but as soon as Paul got ill I signed the register. The point of our single is to make younger people aware of donation. By the time you've gone online and read your Facebook you could have registered.
"Watching Paul go through what he did was a lot worse than donating the kidney."
Figures show that more than one in nine people back organ donation but only two in five are actually on the register.
Donor co-ordinator Giles Thorpe said: "Up to nine people can be saved from just one patient."
