Case study

MURIEL and Brian McCabe, who attended the donor register campaign yesterday, allowed their son’s organs to be used to save the lives of six people after he collapsed from a brain haemorrhage last September.

Grant McCabe, 40, who lived with his partner Liz Walker and their three children, Lisa, 14, Kyle, 12, and Glen, ten, in Armadale, West Lothian, had not put his name on the organ donor register but his family were certain he would have agreed to donate his organs.

His father Brian McCabe said: “I knew if my son needed an organ to survive we would have taken it with two hands so if any good could come of such a horrible situation, and he could help others live, we had to do it. My wife and his partner Liz agreed, and so we said yes.

“We knew that this could help other people and they wouldn’t need to go through the heartache that we were going through. We all knew it was the right thing to do.

“Liz and Grant had watched a programme before about organ donation and he had said then that he would donate all his organs except his eyes, and although he wasn’t on the NHS Organ Donor Register we carried on with his wishes.”

Mr McCabe added that the children regarded their father as a hero for saving people’s lives.

Mr McCabe has since encouraged 350 members of his Harley Davidson motorbike club to join the register.