Crash-death girl gives life to five others

people

A 13-year-old girl who was killed in a car accident has helped five others to live by donating her organs.

Jacki Franklin-List believed she was too young to carry a donor card but had made it clear to her parents that she wanted her organs used if anything happened to her. She gave three babies, an eight-year-old child and a grandfather the chance of a new life.

Jacki was knocked down by a car last April while cycling with her brother near her home in Surrey. She was taken to Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, where she was put on a life-support machine but died next day.

One kidney was given to a 60- year-old man, her liver was divided between an eight-month-old baby and an eight-year-old girl and two other babies, one four days old and one 18 months old, received heart valves. All are now doing well, according to Jacki's stepfather, Ray List.

He said: "We told the doctors we wanted her organs donated before they asked us. Now five others have benefited and we feel it wasn't a complete waste of a life. To start with it didn't help a great deal. We were both so upset. But now time has passed it certainly has helped - especially when you think of the three young babies who are just starting life."

The UK Transplant Support Service Authority in Bristol said there was no upper or lower age limit for carrying a donor card.