Organ donor battler wins top award

A FORMER Newport man fighting to improve the organ donation system in his adopted country has won an important award.

Andy Tookey began his campaign in New Zealand after his daughter Katie was diagnosed with a rare liver disease.

He and his wife Janice were told Katie, who will be two in the autumn, would need a transplant and then discovered New Zealand had one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world.

Mr Tookey, who has two other children, began lobbying politicians and won the support of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Both men have received an award from the American Organ Donation Society for their contribution to raising awareness about the issue.

"It has been an uphill battle but I feel we are making progress," said Mr Tookey, who still has relatives living in Newport.

"It feels odd getting this award from the US for what we are doing in New Zealand, especially as here all I get from the officials are reasons why we cannot do things to improve the system. I hope in the future it will be the minister of health who receives recognition for a world class system, but I think that may be some way off yet."

* Recently, the family underwent another ordeal when doctors told them a routine scan had detected a nodule in Katie's liver. She was admitted for a liver biopsy which should have involved a short stay but complications meant she was kept in for longer.

After an anxious wait for the results of the biopsy, Mr Tookey said they were told they had not read the scans correctly and the nodule was in fact the liver.

"We obviously are overjoyed with this, as it possibly means that Katie may go for some years before needing a transplant."

But, he added, they had had two weeks of worry for nothing and their girl had become ill while in hospital.

 Courtesy of the South Wales Argus -http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/