A Wiltshire woman has shared her experience of receiving a life-saving organ donation as NHS Blood and Transplant celebrated 30 years of the NHS Organ Donor Register.
More than 2.8 million people in the South West have declared their willingness to donate their organs after death, it was announced during Organ Donation Week, which ran from September 23 to 29.
Since the register's inception in 1994, more than 100,000 people in the UK have had their lives saved by an organ transplant, including more than 8,000 people in the South West.
The register was created 30 years ago to promote organ donation and allow people to record their decision to be a donor.
Ms Ryan, who grew up in Wiltshire and lived in Winterslow for 20 years, said: “Luckily, I received my heart transplant quickly in spring 1993.
"I have been very lucky; I wouldn’t be here without my heart transplant.
“Thirty-one years later I am here, very fit and well, currently about to enter my third and final year of a Theatre and Performance Practice undergraduate degree at the University of Salford.
"I don’t think I can put into words how grateful I am to my donor and their incredible family. Without them, I simply wouldn’t be alive today."
She added: “Amazingly the Organ Donor Register is younger than my transplant but it's great it has been around for 30 years.
"I hope marking the anniversary raises awareness of organ donation and the difference it makes."
In the South West, 261 patients received a life-saving transplant from a deceased donor last year, and 155 residents donated their organs after death.
However, the waiting list for a transplant in the UK is higher than ever before, with 593 patients in the region still actively waiting for a life-saving organ.
Donors are typically those who have died in a hospital intensive care unit or emergency department due to brain injuries, cardiac arrest, or other trauma.
Anthony Clarkson, director of organ and tissue donation and transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "Every day across the UK there are thousands of patients and their families, waiting for that all-important life-saving call.
"With 593 patients in the South West waiting for organ transplants, it’s more important than ever to register your organ donation decision and make it known to your family."
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