Video appeals for organ donors

An East Sussex teenager with cystic fibrosis has posted a video on YouTube appealing for people to sign up to the organ donor register.

19 year-old Holly Pereira, who needs a double lung transplant, says:

"Being put on the list means that my chances of survival without a transplant may mean I only have a few years left to live."

The teenager adds: "There is nothing more I can do but hope that call will come. But sadly I know sometimes it’s too late and the call won’t come on time."

Last month a controversial U.S website launched in the UK, which allows people who need a kidney to plead directly for a living donor online via recorded videos.

Users who sign up to the American website Matching Donors can watch videos and read personal information to decide who they would like to donate to.

Under the UK NHS transplant scheme, a medical panel decides who needs a transplant the most, and so donors are not informed who receives their kidney.

New rules governing organ transplants are currently being drawn up amid concern about money changing hands illegally as a result of patients making pleas.

Paul Dooley, the chief executive of Matching Donors, said that his non-profit organisation had security checks which had weeded out potential donors from Cameroon, China and India who were seeking to sell their organs through the website for thousands of dollars.