MORE people are being urged to sign up as organ donors, as new figures revealed that 63 people in Bradford are waiting for a life-saving transplant operation.

This year, 31 patients from across the city have been saved because of organ donation, and health bosses want even more people to be given the gift of life.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is using National Transplant Week - which runs from today until Sunday - to encourage more people to sign the donor register.

Dr Alex Brown, deputy medical director at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, said: "Already this year, the lives of 31 sick and dying patients from across the city have been saved after they received the gift of life. What a wonderful thing to be able to know that after you have gone, you can help someone else to live on.

"Yet some people in our district won’t even have considered organ donation or decided if they want to be an organ donor, so I would urge them this week to have that discussion with their loved ones.

"Don’t be one of the people who want to donate their organs when they die but have never talked to a loved one about that decision – if families don’t know they won’t be able to give us your permission if you die unexpectedly."

Last year the number of people donating organs fell nationally for the first time in 11 years. The UK also has one of the lowest rates in Europe for families consenting to organ donation. In 2014/15, 58 per cent agreed to donate their family members' organs after they died. Across the UK there are 10,000 people in need of a transplant.

This National Transplant Week includes the NHS Blood and Transplant's Seven Days to Say Yes I Donate campaign.

Jayne Fisher, team manager for the Yorkshire Organ Donation Services Team and a former Bradford Royal Infirmary specialist nurse for organ donation, said: "Every day in this country, three people die in need of a transplant. Yet across the UK and Bradford, one in three adults haven't considered organ donation or decided whether they want to be an organ donor.

"To save more lives we need more donors. To raise that number we really need everyone to understand the importance of not being complacent. We need to get to the point where organ donation is high on the list of important personal conversations we routinely have with loved ones.

"Reluctance to talk about organ donation means many healthy organs that could be donated aren’t used."

Alan Ritchie, 61, of Shipley, who has been waiting for a kidney transplant for nearly five years, has also urged more people to sign up to donate their organs.

"If more people could donate it would be good," he said. "People say they want to leave organs, but then the family say they can't. If the person says so, that should be it.

"If the person wants their organs donated I don't see why anyone can say they can't."

Mr Ritchie was rushed to St James's University Hospital in Leeds on August 23 for a transplant, but the operation was cancelled an hour before it was due to start.

"The kidney was fine," said Mr Ritchie. "But the donor liver had a cancerous cell.

"I went through all the tests and was due to go in at about 6.30pm. It was called off at 5.30pm. I was a bit deflated."

Mr Ritchie had to give up his job with Royal Mail in December 2010 due to polycystic kidney disease, which causes cysts on both his kidneys. He was diagnosed seven years ago.

He used to have to have dialysis at St Luke’s Hospital three times a week for four hours, but now does home dialysis.

"I take every day as it comes and hope they ring up," said Mr Ritchie. "I feel fine."

To get involved with the Seven Days to Say Yes I Donate campaign visit organdonation.nhs.uk.

PATIENT IN NEED OF KIDNEY TRANSPLANT IN PLEA FOR DONORS

A MAN who has been waiting for a kidney transplant for nearly five years has urged more people to sign up to donate their organs.

Alan Ritchie also insisted families should not be able to overturn a loved one’s decision to donate organs after their death.

“If more people could donate it would be good,” said Mr Ritchie. “People say they want to leave organs, but then the family say they can’t. If the person says so, that should be it.”

Mr Ritchie, 61, of Daleside Road, Shipley, had to give up his job with Royal Mail in December 2010 due to polycystic kidney disease.

He was rushed to St James’s University Hospital in Leeds on August 23 for a transplant, but the operation was cancelled an hour before it was due to start.

“The kidney was fine,” said Mr Ritchie. “But the donor liver had a cancerous cell.

“I went through all the tests and was due to go in at about 6.30pm. It was called off at 5.30pm. I was a bit deflated.”