Worcester girl in need of transplant heads up NHS campaign

Arabella will need a cornea transplant to help keep her sight

A 10-year-old girl who needs a cornea transplant to help keep her sight has become the face of an NHS organ donation campaign.

Arabella from Worcester has a genetic condition which impairs her vision and will be relying on a tissue donor to save her sight.

Now, she is part of an NHS campaign to inspire people to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

More than 230 children in the UK are urgently in need of organ transplants.

Arabella's mother, Claire, had a cornea transplant as a result of the same genetic condition her daughter has.

The family discovered after a routine eye exam last year that Arabella had inherited avellino dystrophy.

"As positive as we are as a family, this pulled at my heart knowing that one day in the future my little girl will need a cornea graft, due to the dystrophy being progressive over time.

"No parent wants their child to experience the emotions and frustrations that they have endured themselves," Claire said.

Arabella is part of the NHS's Waiting to Live campaign, encouraging people to consider organ and tissue donation

There is a significant shortfall of child organ donors and cornea donors, resulting in painful waits for children and their families.

There is no national waiting list for cornea transplants but it is believed more than 6,000 people, including children, are waiting for a cornea transplant.

In 2022-23 more than 2,350 people donated corneas after their death, including 17 children.

In this time period, more than 3,500 patients had their sight improved by a cornea transplant, 37 of whom were children.

"After having received a cornea transplant myself I understand how unsettling the wait can be," Claire said.

"Due to her love of football I'm sure a delay when being called up to play for England one day would be most inconvenient to Arabella!"

Arabella is now part of the Waiting to Live campaign, which aims to encourage parents and families to consider organ and tissue donation.

Children in need of transplants are represented by handmade dolls that will be placed across the country.

The Arabella doll, which is part of the NHS's Waiting to Live campaign

Each doll will wear a badge inviting people passing by to scan a QR code to hear stories of children in need of transplants.

Arabella's doll is being hosted by the UK's largest tissue bank and purpose-built tissue donation centre, in Speke, Liverpool.

Kyle Bennett, assistant director at Tissue and Eye Services at NHS Blood and Transplant said: "For the patients waiting for a cornea transplant, a cornea donor means the gift of sight.

"This can only happen if a family says yes to tissue donation at time of sadness and grief. Yet families tell us that agreeing to tissue donation can be a source of great comfort and pride.

"By encouraging more people to confirm their support for organ and tissue donation on the NHS Organ Donor Register, we hope to be able to help more children and adults, to live and to see, both today and in the future."