HOSPITALS are warning of a deadly shortage of organs across Cumbria as the NHS reveals 40 people in the county have died while waiting for transplants in the last 10 years.

There are 45 people on the transplant list - five are in Barrow, five are in South Lakeland and six are in Copeland.

NHS Blood and Transplant released the figures to mark the beginning of organ donation week which starts tomorrow (Monday). It hopes to recruit thousands of more donors.

One resident keen to encourage people to opt-in to the organ donation scheme and discuss this with their families is 55-year-old Stephen Hancock.

The Bootle resident had a kidney transplant last November after spending a number of years on dialysis after suffering kidney failure.

He said: "When you join the list, the likelihood is you will never be a donor - you are much more likely to need a transplant than you are to be asked to give one.

"From what I've learned is the donor families take massive comfort from the fact nothing will bring back the person they lost, but the death wasn't in vain.

"They will get to know who has been helped."

Of the 40 county-wide deaths, which Mr Hancock called "senseless," eight were in Barrow, seven were in Copeland and fewer than five in South Lakeland.

The retired consultant from Bootle added :"You need to tell your family what you want as they can still say no.

"It doesn't take long but it's best to have the chat in advance as, when it counts, there's not a lot of time to think about it."

Anthony Clarkson, assistant director of organ donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “It’s a tragedy that people are dying unnecessarily every year in Cumbria waiting for transplants.

“We know that if everyone who supported donation talked about it and agreed to donate, most of those lives would be saved."

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