Singer Church backs organ donation campaign

Singer Charlotte Church is joining the organ donation register after learning of a family friend's battle for survival.

The television presenter, and mother to six-month-old Ruby, voiced her support for organ donation as she met parents of sick children at the Children's Hospital for Wales in Cardiff.

She became involved in the issue after speaking to the parents of 20-month-old Finlay Careless, who has liver disease and is due to go onto a liver transplant list. Ms Church's mother Maria is a family friend of his father, 40-year-old Julian Careless.

Speaking as she was holding baby six-and-a-half-month-old Logan Donegan, who needs liver and bowel transplants, Ms Church said: "I wanted to get the message across to donate organs. I'm definitely going to do it myself.

"It's so important. A little baby like this can benefit so much. It would mean so much to these two little boys. It's something that everyone should do."

Finlay's mother Sarah Howells, 33, said she was in favour of an opt-out, rather than opt-in, organ donor register.

She added: "It's a procedure that is in place across the rest of Europe. Seven out of 10 people would like to give their organs, but only two out of 10 are on the register.

"I'm hoping Charlotte's support will make a big difference."

Ms Church said she liked the idea of an opt-out scheme, and added: "I can't imagine what it's like for a mother like Sarah to have to sit and wait. The child could deteriorate while you're waiting."

Ms Church said that she would persuade her partner, Wales rugby international Gavin Henson, and other friends and relatives to join her on the organ donation register.

She said: "There's no need for us not to do it. It's so easy, and it won't mean anything to us at the time.

"There's such a shortage, and a shortage of blood donation, and it could save these boys' lives."

Ms Church said she had changed her mind about the issue since becoming a mother, and said a year ago her opinion would have been: "I'm keeping my organs".

She added: "Having a baby myself, and meeting the boys, it makes you understand how important it is, and how easy it is for us to do."

She said people often failed to sign the organ donor register because of "laziness" and "being a bit scared", and added: "When you die, what are you going to do? Why don't you give them for some good use?"

Ms Church said her message to people considering donating their organs would be: "Just do it. They really won't mean anything to you when you're gone. If it affected your own family you'd do it without hesitation."

Logan's mother Rhian, 19, from Bargoed, said her son has just six months to live if he does not have a transplant.

She said: "It's excellent to have Charlotte's support".

Mr Careless, who is from Cardiff and now lives in Swansea, said: "If this means one person picks up a donor card, or gives a pound to the liver disease foundation, it's going to help."

His son is treated at King's College Hospital, London, and is going there next week to be put on the waiting list for a transplant.

A spokesman for UK Transplant, the NHS body that manages the National Transplant Database and promotes organ donation, said he welcomed Ms Church's support.

He said: "The fact that the need for transplantation has touched her directly, through friends, helps bring home more than anything just how desperate the need is.

"The UK has a chronic shortage of donated organs so anything that helps highlight that is welcomed and encouraged.

"Organ donation is something we can all do something about."

He said more than 9,000 people are currently in need of an organ transplant, and that 3,000 transplants are carried out each year. About 1,000 people die every year because they do not get the transplant they need, he added.

For more information on organ donation, contact 0845 6060400 or go to www.uktransplant.org.uk.