THE family of a 30-year-old woman who died waiting for a transplant has raised more than £1,000 in her memory.

Kirsty Wakenshaw suffered with renal failure for two years and was on dialysis while waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant – which needed to come from a donor who had died.

1. ?

   Kirsty Wakenshaw died waiting for a transplant; below her best friend Naomi Readman, consultant Dr Charlie Tomson and sister Joanne Wakenshaw have been raising money to help prevent that happening to anyone else

2. ?

The organs did not become available soon enough for her and she died waiting in February 2007.

Her family is determined to raise awareness of the organ donor register and is also pushing for the opt-out scheme to be introduced in England in the hope that more organs will become available for people in a similar position to Kirsty.

The family organised a fundraising event in Weston-super-Mare to mark the anniversary of her death and raise money for the hospitals that supported her.

They raised £1,165 through the event at the Claremont Vaults, money which has been shared between research into transplants at Southmead Hospital and giving the Ambleside dialysis unit at Weston General a makeover to make it more pleasant for patients undergoing treatment. Dialysis carries out the function of the kidneys.

Kirsty was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 14, which led to sight problems and the eventual failure of her kidneys.

She had dialysis at the Ambleside satellite dialysis unit and at home.

Her sister Joanne said: "We wanted to remember Kirsty in a positive way and to do something positive in her memory. And most importantly we wanted to raise the profile of the presumed-consent debate because we want to see that rolled out across the country because it should mean that fewer people due waiting for organs.

"We couldn't believe how well the fundraising night went. We didn't anticipate how successful it was going to be. We ran out of raffle tickets and cakes.

"It was the first thing we had done because we were all so shocked and stunned by Kirsty's death that it took a long time to get around to it."

Joanne has been working with the creative arts department at Weston College to help out with the project at Ambleside.

She said: "We are hoping to maybe get some murals rather than looking at magnolia walls because we wanted to do something to help people who use it for dialysis."

The Wakenshaw family handed £1,000 to nephrologist Charlie Tomson, who was Kirsty's consultant. It will go to the Southmead Transplantation Research Fund, for the work of senior consultant and lecturer in renal medicine, Richard Smith, to better understand issues around transplants and how to make them more effective, particularly in patients with diabetes.

Dr Tomson said: "Dr Smith's research is an absolute perfect fit because Kirsty died as a direct result of diabetes.

"The research is looking at the people who will benefit from the pancreas transplants because clinically they are not for everyone. Kirsty would have been an ideal candidate for a pancreas transplant and I wish we had the time again."

For more information on organ donation and how to sign up to the register visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/default.asp.

...