‘I had 12 weeks left to live. Look at me now’

Sangita Patel had been given just three months to live when she got a late-night telephone call informing her that a donor liver had become available for transplant.

The 31-year-old, who underwent the life-saving operation at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, said: “I never imagined my future. Now I want to enjoy every day and appreciate the simple things, like meeting up with family and friends, going out for a meal, just little things.”

Ms Patel, an IT recruitment specialist from Edinburgh, was one of Scotland’s donor recipients who attended the launch of the Scottish Government’s latest campaign to encourage people to sign up to the Organ Donor Register.

While Scotland’s donor register rate is higher than the UK average, there are still more than 600 Scots waiting for transplants.

Speaking at the event, health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said she was open to the idea of an “opt-out” system, where people would automatically be added to the register unless they indicated otherwise.

“Last year there were 67 organ donors in Scotland – a rate of 13 donors per million population, up from 9.8 donors per million in 2006-07.

“Our rate of sign-up to the Organ Donor Rregister has also hit an all-time high, with 37 per cent of the population signed up to save a life, compared to the UK average of 30 per cent,” she said.

“However, the tragic fact is that more than 600 people in Scotland are still waiting for a life-saving transplant, and across the UK three people die every day because they don’t get the organ they need in time.”

The opt-out alternative was debated at the SNP conference in Inverness last weekend, where delegates overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling on the Scottish Government to consider the approach.

“There are no plans at the moment, but I’ve got a personal sympathy for opt-out,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“The advice I’ve had from experts is that it doesn’t change things miraculously and the infrastructure needs to be put in place.”

Last night, the British Medical Association voiced its support for an opt-out system to “dramatically” improve donation rates.

Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the BMA in Scotland, said repeated studies showed more than 90 per cent of the population supported organ donation, yet only about a third had signed up to the register.

“The BMA believes that a change to an opt-out system addresses this problem, by making donation the default position from which people may opt out during their lifetime if they so wish.” Dr Keighly said.

The £590,000 campaign, which will run for three weeks throughout November on TV, radio and online, invites people to register by phone, text or via the internet.

Professor John Forsythe, lead clinician for organ donation in Scotland and consultant transplant surgeon at the ERI, said: “The more people we have on the register, the better the chance of saving lives. It only takes a minute but each donor could save as many as eight lives.”