Advocate story – Georgia Wilding

I joined Live Life Give Life (LLGL) over six years ago now, but I haven’t had a transplant. My link to organ donation is a bit different. My reason for joining LLGL – after running the Great North Run for them – was all about my cousin, Jamie.

Three years older than me, Jamie is one of my closest-in-age cousins (I have a LOT of them!). Jamie underwent two liver transplants, aged 10 and 11 – something I hardly recall as I was so young at the time. However, 2015 brought it all sharply into focus as he ended up in Intensive Care on every form of life support after a heart operation; the doctors told the whole family in the waiting room that there was nothing to be done. We didn’t fit in the waiting room actually; the corridor of Kings Hospital saw many of our family members sat propped up against the walls too.

There were so many people there that day; every single one would have missed Jamie in their lives. He could have been taken away over a decade previously if it hadn’t been for his organ donors.

This time Jamie pulled through against all the odds. Thanks to the team at Kings, our family doesn’t have to miss Jamie yet. We have had so many precious years with him, thanks to his organ donors.

My journey with LLGL doesn’t end there; it inspired my career as a transplant nurse in one of the UK’s best transplant centres. So it’s not just Jamie, but my friends at LLGL and every patient I meet – and wouldn’t have met if it were not for organ donation and/or their need for an organ. Each and every one of the people I meet inspires me to fight for better for them – better rates of organ donation and more support for the transplant community.