I was a little bit upset that I couldn’t get any information about the donor. This annoyed me because in different centres around the country, different people are given different information. Now I didn’t want their life story, but I wrote a letter to the family after the op, and it was really difficult to write it because I didn’t know whether that person was a man, woman, age, nothing. So it was very difficult to write that letter.

It seemed very impersonal just saying your family member or whatever. I couldn’t make it any more distinctive than that. And that was upsetting. But that is down to the [hospital name]. That’s their policy on it. But I kind of think, if I was donating, I’d like the person to know a little bit about me. I know it can cause lots of problems because you can get families who are following the recipient and making sure they don’t do anything to harm the organs. I know that.

But it would have been just helpful to have known a little bit of information about that person so I could have built up an idea of him or her in my head. I have no idea about the person at all, and that upsets me sometimes because I’ve got to live with their organs inside me for the rest of my life. And I know nothing about them. So that’s a bit of a sore point with me. I would have liked to have known a bit of information.

I think to the day I die I’ll be thinking, “Who was she? Who was he? Was he or she married, have they got children?” You know, just little questions like that. And I don’t see the harm in giving a little information. Because at the end of the day, as I said, they have consented to do this after their death. And also the recipient has put themselves through a huge operation in order to get those organs, so it’s a very big deal on both parts.