Glasgow mum fights to smash the stigma of child organ donation
A Glasgow mum is urging parents to register their children as organ donors, as her two-year-old son waits for life-saving bowel and liver transplants.
Jade Earaker (23) had her son Zachary prematurely at 28 weeks and he suffered from gastroschisis and other severe health issues.
He underwent a liver transplant in August last year but it failed and he later contracted sepsis.
Doctors believe the transplant failed due to being from an adult donor and, as Zachary weighs just nine kilograms, he can now only be matched with another child.
Jade and her partner Rhys are “sick with worry” for their young son who has spent most of his life in hospital and is in urgent need for a new liver transplant. He is just one of over 230 children waiting for an organ transplant in the UK.
They are raising awareness for the growing need for child organ donors – but the mum-of-two admits it is a difficult conversation to have.
She said: “It’s such a touchy subject in the sense that you are asking a lot of people. You’re asking ‘could you consider if anything happens to your child, would you let them live on through another child?'”
“I would like to urge families to have the conversation about organ donation. It’s not just adults, it’s everyone that can donate, and if it can save a life like Zachary’s then it’s a conversation worth having.”
