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PRESS RELEASE: 9 June 2005

Service to remember the gift of life

The East Anglia Transplant Service is holding its fourth remembrance service at Ely Cathedral on Sunday 12 June at 1400. This is an opportunity for donor and recipient families to come together and remember the people who so generously gave the gift of life through organ donation.

Transplants are the best possible treatment for most people with organ failure and are one of the most miraculous achievements of modern medicine. They involve the donation of organs from one person to another enabling approximately 2,700 people in the UK every year to take on a new lease of life.

"None of the life-saving and life-enhancing transplants that have taken place over the years would have been possible without the support of donors and their families. Whilst this is a service to remember those who have donated, it is also an opportunity to celebrate life," said Marian Ryan, Regional Transplant Co-ordinator based at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

Since the last memorial three years ago 111 people from the East Anglia region have donated organs, including heart, liver, kidney, lungs and pancreas. These donations have contributed to the 222 kidney, 218 liver and 221 cardiothoracic organ transplants carried out at Addenbrooke's and Papworth Hospitals in the past three years.

Addenbrooke's Hospital is a world leader in transplant surgery, with the transplant unit playing an important role in the research and evolution of clinical transplantation over the last 40 years. The unit continues to go from strength to strength, with 160 patients receiving transplants last year.

Some of the unit's notable achievements include performing the first successful liver transplant in Europe back in May 1968; carrying out the world's first combined heart, lung and liver transplant with Papworth NHS Trust in 1986; and performing the UK's 10,000th liver transplant last year.

PRESS
If you would like to set up an interview with Marian Ryan, or a transplant patient, please telephone Emma Oram on 01223 274433. You are welcome to attend the service, and your contact on the day will be Marian Ryan.

For further press/media information contact: PR & Communications Department, Box 53, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ; Tel: 01223 274 433; Fax: 01223 257 143; Minicom: 01223 274 604.