Dr Peter Rowe from the South West Transplant Centre at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, explains the need for kidney transplants as a preferred option to dialysis.
On tonight's ITV News West Country at 6pm we have a full report on a kidney transplant from a living donor - a type of surgery pioneered at Derriford Hospital.
On ITV News West Country tonight at 6pm, we look at kidney donations from living donors. Most "live" donations are within families but there are a small number of altruistic donors who donate one of their kidneys to a person they don't know who's waiting on the transplant list.
Derriford Hospital in Plymouth is one of the pioneers of this type of transplant. Our Health Correspondent Jacquie Bird has been to watch one - watch her full report on tonight's programme.
The shortage of organ donors is an issue very close to the heart of Kirstie Tancock from Devon. She had a double lung transplant 18 months ago. She often works to recruit people to the register and is fully behind ITV's From the Heart campaign.
Our Health Correspondent Jacquie Bird has been following Kirstie's story for the final feature in our From the Heart series
In the latest of our features about organ donation and transplants as part of ITV's From the Heart campaign, we focus on the need for more organ donors.
Steve Gazzard's daughter died while she was on the transplant waiting list. Just three months on he's been signing people up for the register in his home town of Exmouth.
Our Health Correspondent Jacquie Bird reports
ITV is running its From the Heart Campaign all this week, to raise awareness of organ donation. This report features two young people: Will Pope, who's recovering from a heart transplant, and Stacie Pridden, who's still waiting for her call to come.
If you would like more information on organ donation and the campaign, or to see more uplifting stories, visit its main webpage.
Abi Richardson, a young transplant patient from Saltash, thanks the mother of the boy whose death gave her new lungs and a fuller life. Our Health Correspondent Jacquie Bird went to meet her as part of ITV's From the Heart campaign.
All this week ITV is running a big campaign to raise awareness of organ donation. This week on ITV West Country we are hearing both from donor families and the patients whose lives have been transformed by organ donations, as well as the health professionals involved.
523 people in the South West are currently waiting for a transplant. On tonight's West Country News at 6, we visit the Transplant Duty Office in Bristol, whose job it is to make sure organs get to the right donor in time; hey have to move super fast at a moment's notice.
If you would like to find out more about ITV's From the Heart Campaign, there is lots of information here.
One mother's story of how her daughter's life was saved thanks to receiving the heart of another baby - as part of ITV's From the Heart campaign, running all this week.