She knows only too well the importance of Organ Donation Week and Walsall Healthcare’s NHS Trust Interim Deputy Chief Executive Professor Ann-Marie Cannaby is supporting its message of ‘Leave Them Certain’.

Ann-Marie has a close friend who has been through the process of being on the transplant list and waiting for a kidney to be donated so she is aware of the emotion and trauma that can be involved.

“I know from personal experience how important organ donation is,” said Ann-Marie. “My friend went through a difficult experience, but following the donation of a healthy kidney, she has been given a new lease of life and she is forever grateful to her donor for their generosity.

“I appreciate someone’s family and loved ones have been through heartbreak but they have given someone else a priceless gift so that their life can continue.”

Ann-Marie believes the subject of organ donation should be discussed between loved ones, so people can plan for the future.

“No one knows what’s going to happen in the future, so it’s important people can make the right choices,” she added.

“People still have a choice if they want to be an organ donor when they die. Whatever anyone decides, they should make sure they let their families and friends know their wishes.”

Kidneys are the most commonly donated organs by living people, and about a third of all kidney transplants carried out in the UK are from living donors.

A kidney transplant can transform the life of someone with kidney disease. Living kidney transplants have been performed in the UK since 1960 and around 1,100 such operations are performed each year, with a very high success rate.