[A] ceremony was held at the Renal Unit at Westmorland General Hospital to unveil the Kendal Organ Donor Town plaque, which was sadly vandalised and stolen some time ago.
Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron joined Rachael Hogg from the Kendal Organ Donor Town committee and Nikki Hargreaves from NHS Blood and Transplant to unveil the plaque in its new home.
Rachael said: “In 2016 I received my second kidney transplant from my husband Chris during his mayoral year and we made organ donation our priority for the year. We set a target to increase the number of donors in Kendal by 1,000 – something we outstripped. Since then we have increased the number of donors by 25% and now 47% of the population is on the organ donor register.
“I would like to thanks University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in supporting us – but most of all I would like to thank the people of Kendal in supporting us to achieve what we have.”
Tim added: “Rachael and Chris set out on a really important mission which continues to this day. Their story is massively moving on a personal level – but has also raised the awareness of organ donation to get us to the level of organ donation we have in the town – and which continues to save lives.”
