Pontypridd mum calls for more people to join donor register
New figures published that family consent or authorisation across the UK has dropped from 69% in 2020/21 to 57% in 2025/26
NHS Blood and Transplant is calling on people in Wales to register their decision to be an organ donor.
The plan announced today (5 August) is to increase the number of people in the UK on the NHS Organ Donor Register - aiming to increase from 29 million to 30 million people to be registered donors by the end of the year.
It comes as new figures published today, show that family consent or authorisation across the UK has dropped from 69% in 2020/21 to 57% in 2025/26 - a fall of almost a fifth in five years.
Last year, almost 90% of families supported donation when they knew their loved one had made their wishes clear
Almost 29 million people in the UK have already expressed their decision to be a donor via the NHS Organ Donor Register – with 1.4 million people in Wales already registering their decision to donate their organs after death.
Beth Owen, 53, from Tonteg, Pontypridd, knew daughter Menna, 18, wanted to be an organ donor after they had discussed their wishes as a family. Menna died in March last year after a cardiac arrest, caused by an epileptic seizure. She went on to donate her heart and lungs to two different recipients, both in their 20s.
Beth said: "Menna had epilepsy but it was very well controlled – she'd only had three seizures. On the day of her final seizure, Menna had been at work and went for a lie down while I made tea.
"That was a bit out of the ordinary, but she'd been working long hours, I assumed she was tired. After we ate, she went into the other room to speak to some friends. After about 15 minutes, I went through to ask her to have an early night. She was already in the bathroom and I went straight in. She was in cardiac arrest when I got in there."
The Air Ambulance crew and paramedics took Menna by ambulance to the same hospital where Beth, a Senior Nurse in Neuroscience, works. Beth, husband Malcolm and son Dan, age 23, were told that Menna had a catastrophic brain injury and wasn't likely to survive.
"I brought organ donation up", says Beth. "I knew it was what Menna wanted. We'd had a conversation, as a family, about staying safe, talking about things like alcohol and drugs. It led to a bigger discussion, which included organ donation. Menna said yes straight away, she said she would want to donate everything she could.
"She lived her life quietly and was happy"
"Menna was amazing and it's right that donation is what she wanted – it's the type of person she was, she was kind. She lived her life quietly and was happy.
''The last thing we could do was our best for Menna, by honouring her wishes – there was no decision for us to make when it came to organ donation, she had already made it. I don't know if we would have been able to make that same decision if she hadn't. When you know what their wishes are, it makes it so much easier and donation became everything to us''.
"I know now that donation gives comfort to families too. Knowing that she has helped others and that we have honoured her wishes, I think she would be proud. We are shattered and we will grieve Menna forever, but donation has given us such comfort. I think some people do not have to live a long life to make a difference. Perhaps Menna's purpose was to make an incredible difference to us every day of her life and to save lives in her death.
“I have heard that, a year on, both recipients are doing incredibly well. That's Menna's legacy."
In Wales there was an increase in the number of donors - with 126 people donating their organs compared to 115 the previous year – the number of people in the region receiving transplants fell slightly to 224 from 235 last year.