Transplant saved us

Sheffield Telegraph
Photo: Transplant Survivor Craig & Son Samuel Blackburn
A young man has recruited hundreds of organ donors to the register after he - and his father - were given a second chance at life thanks to transplantation.
Samuel Blackburn, aged 28, suffered chronic renal failure from birth and had his right kidney removed as a youngster.

When he was placed on the transplant list, his father Craig offered to donate an organ â€" but, in a bizarre twist, it was while undergoing tests for the procedure that doctors discovered Craig had kidney cancer.

Craig had his affected kidney removed just months before Samuel was given his new organ in 2007 - and he has now had the all-clear.

IT account manager Samuel, of Spooner Drive, Killamarsh, said: “Before the operation I didn’t realise how ill I was - my friends used to call me Bart Simpson because I was that yellow.

“The difference the transplant has made is unbelievable, I can do stuff normally again. My dad was very lucky - without him going through the tests he wouldn’t have known about the cancer, and he could have fallen down dead.”
______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor TODAY
In California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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