How losing my Josie gave life to other people

A HEARTBROKEN Christine Phillips watched through a veil of tears as her daughter Josie's life support machine was switched off.

The 18-year-old had been the victim of a house fire and, after her sobbing mother was led out of the room by relatives, Christine was confronted with a distressing decision; would she donate her daughter's organs so that someone else could live after her death?

"It was very difficult because she had just been pronounced dead," says Christine in her flat, across the Forth in Rosyth, where she is surrounded by pictures of Josie's grave and newspaper cuttings about the fire.

"But I never thought about saying no," she adds. "I knew it was a good thing."

Since then, the brave mum-of-five has been reassured that her decision was the right one, as she has discovered that Josie was a registered organ donor.

Christine has also received thank-you letters from some of those whose lives were saved.

Clutching one of the letters, she says: "It made Josie's death easier to deal with to know that someone else's life was saved, especially reading their letters and knowing how ill they were before their transplants."

Josie died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in the flat she shared with her mum and brother on December 5, 2004.

The lively teenager loved aromatherapy candles and was always lighting them in her bedroom or around the bath before a good soak.

On this particular Sunday morning, Josie was having a lie in with her boyfriend of two years while her mum had gone to the nearby shop. Christine, now 60 and retired, recalls returning home to see firefighters battling a blaze.

"When I came back two minutes later smoke was pouring out of the building," recalls Christine. "I thought it was the flat above but firefighters told me it was the middle flat."

Josie and her boyfriend Lawrence Vaughan, 19, were in the back bedroom while another son, Michael, now 21, was in the front bedroom and managed to escape.

"Michael feels terrible because he managed to get out but the fire brigade just told him to run," says Christine.

"Josie and her boyfriend were asleep. The fire brigade brought the two of them out to the front door and tried resuscitation, then rushed them to hospital. Lawrence was pronounced dead at the hospital but Josie lived till the next day."

The flat and all their possessions, including Christine's precious photos of Josie, were destroyed in the blaze.

An investigation found that the fire was started by a candle in the bedroom which was knocked over by Josie's tabby cat Chico, who also died in the blaze.

Christine shudders: "I can't even look at a candle now. They make me feel sick."

Shortly after Josie died, Christine received a letter from NHS Lothian thanking her and telling her how her daughter's organs had been used.

Josie's right kidney went to a 47-year-old man, who had been receiving dialysis treatment three times a week before his transplant.

Her left kidney and pancreas were transplanted to a 33-year-old diabetic patient, who had kidney failure and was also receiving dialysis.

And Josie's liver was transplanted to a 44-year-old married woman, like the others, from Scotland, with two grown up children, who had been on the transplant waiting list for nearly a year.

Josie's heart was placed in the tissue bank for heart valves as were her tendons and corneas.

Rules surrounding organ donation decree that donors and organ recipients remain anonymous apart from the most basic details. But the transplant coordinator passes on the occasional letter and Christmas card to Christine from those who received her daughter's organs.

A snippet from one letter Christine received, signed "Jim", reads: "Dear Friend, thank you very much . . . I write to you feeling the very best that I've felt in 13 years . . . This was truly the gift of life."

She also has a certificate of appreciation from the Donor Family Network proudly displayed on the wall and receives a newsletter from them every three months.

They have even included a poem Christine wrote about her daughter in a patch of a quilt they have made.

Christine now believes that organ donation should happen automatically with an option for people to opt out so that relatives would not have to make such difficult decisions.

Adds Christine sadly: "I would love to meet the people who got Josie's organs. It would be nice. I would tell them how happy I am that their health is better through Josie donating her organs."

Christine and Michael remember Josie as a kind, bubbly teenager who loved dancing and pop music, particularly Westlife and Blazin' Squad.

She took great care of her appearance - spending £200 putting hair extensions into her dark brown hair - and Josie, who had just left school, planned to enrol in a beauty therapy and hairdressing course. "She wouldn't move out of her bedroom till she was 100 per cent," smiles Christine.

Michael's memories include Josie turning up her music loud and, like a typical teenager, having regular rows with her boyfriend.

But they would never fall out for long before she would send Michael to Lawrence's home with letters to make up again. Lawrence's mum told them she discovered a room full of letters after her son died.

The pain of their deaths is still very fresh for Christine, but she says she has been helped by knowing Josie's death has given others the gift of life.

She and Michael are now both signed up to the donor register and the proud mum says she wouldn't hesitate to donate her organs, having seen how important it is.

She adds: "I would tell others to go for it as when you get the letters of thanks it is worth it. It was tough but I never thought twice about it."

• The next British Transplant Games will take place in Edinburgh, from Thursday 26th July to Sunday 29th July 2007. For more information see www.transplantsport.org.uk, or call 0131-524 2092.









Monica will shake off injury to give her all
MONICA CLARKE is in training to compete in the 30th British Transplant Games, which start in Edinburgh on Thursday. The 42-year-old sales advisor from Polwarth is an old hand at the Games, having amassed 15 medals for athletics over the years. But it could have been very different for the mum-of-one had it not been for the generosity of two people whose kidneys she received.

She says fervently: "I'm forever grateful for the chance to still be here. I think about it every day. I had no quality of life before, no energy, and was sweating day and night with sore bones and legs. Now I feel very healthy."

Monica is competing in the Edinburgh athletics team, led by her brother Frank Clarke, 40, an information analyst from Gorgie, who also had a kidney transplant. The siblings had the same genetic illness.

Monica had her first transplant at the Western General when she was just 12, requiring a second one when the original failed seven years later.

Monica remembers being a fast runner at primary school till her kidney problems worsened. "To lose that through illness really makes you think. Sport is not something you can do easily when you have kidney problems," she says.

She doesn't know about the people whose kidneys she received, though she says that if their families found her she would be happy for contact. "I'd only like to find them if they found me," she says.

The Marks & Spencer worker's 16-year-old daughter Catherine has a donor card and her mum says she wouldn't think twice about donating after seeing how much it has meant for her.

Now Monica takes anti-rejection drugs and attends a clinic for a check-up twice a year. At the Transplant Games she will compete in the three kilometre walk and perhaps in the 800m race. She will also be reading the Games oath on Thursday as one of the competitors from the original games in 1978. However, she is less confident about her chances this year because of a leg injury that has been plaguing her since November. She adds: "I'll do my best though. I'll take part - for that is the spirit of the Games."




WAITING FOR THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL
IN Lothian, 135 people are awaiting a transplant, with most needing a new kidney, lung or liver. But fewer than 3000 transplants are carried out in the UK each year and many people die waiting.

The British Medical Association backs the idea of "presumed consent", and has called for a public debate on the issue. It wants to introduce an "opt out" system so doctors can assume a dead person's organs are available to save lives unless the individual has expressly said otherwise.

• To sign up as a donor, call the NHS Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400.