Birmingham transplant centre fundraisers look to raise £2m

The University Hospitals Birmingham Charity said the new centre would boost survival rates

An appeal is aiming to raise another £1m by the end of the year to set up a new organ transplant centre.

The University Hospitals Birmingham Charity said it would bring together specialist care in one place, to speed up recovery times and improve outcomes.

It started fundraising two years ago and has already raised £1m to pay for the £2m project.

University Hospitals Birmingham said it aimed to create a "national centre of excellence" for organ transplantation.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is one of only two in the UK that carry out all four organ transplants: heart, lung, liver and kidney.

Its organ transplant programme is nearly twice as large as the one at the other hospital: Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Birmingham trust said the new transplant centre would bring all the specialist care to patients together, including pre-transplant consultations, additional fitness classes before surgery, patient support groups and rehabilitation classes after surgery.

Sarah Codling has been raising money for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for eight years.

Sarah Codling, from Birmingham, was born with a genetic heart defect and given a heart transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital eight years ago.

She plans to marry her partner in May and said: "That is a goal I never thought I would get to."

In gratitude, Ms Codling started raising money for the hospital's charity soon after her operation and thanked staff for the freedom they had given her.

The new transplant centre is due to cost just over £2m

Charlotte Schofield, from the University Hospitals Birmingham Charity, said: "With a centre of excellence such as the new Birmingham transplant centre, it will mean that we can potentially save those people's lives."

She also said it should lead to quicker donations and better survival rates post-operation.