Inside Leicester Medical School's operating room where donated bodies are used to train doctors

Correspondent Rajiv Popat has been inside the operating room where medical students dissect bodies that have been donated

More than 1,700 people have donated their bodies to help train life-saving doctors since Leicester Medical School opened 50 years ago.

ITV News Central was invited inside an operating room, where there were 46 donor bodies all covered in sheets and laid on tables.

Each donor helps educate at least 80 students - they allow future doctors to learn from real-life bodies, rather than textbook diagrams.

The students discover that real body parts can be back to front, or upside down. Some bodies do not have certain muscles, some have muscles that have never been discovered before.

"Students love seeing variation. They love and are fascinated by seeing evidence of the diseases the donors have had during their lives," Prof Steven Jacques told ITV News Central.

The medical school said this kind of exposure is invaluable for trainee doctors, who will know what they are dealing with in an operating room from day one.

"I feel fully confident to walk into the operating room," said student Gregory Felton.

Gregory said: "A lot of people find that quite an anxious experience, but since I had the opportunity to explore every layer of the human body, all the organs, I know what's happening.

"And it gives me the confidence I need for my medical career."

Fellow student Oliver Sweeney explained images of the human body in textbooks are "removed and laid out in such a fashion, which is just not human really".

He said students "meet" their donor in the dissection room about six months into their course.

"We graduate to work with real people and real patients. So being able to have the opportunity to explore a real human body in full is something which nothing else can truly provide," he said.

They are told only their age, occupation and how they died.

Explaining the reason for knowing someone's occupation, he said: "It adds some detail to their character and how we get to know them.

"It keeps them anonymous, but it gives us another flavour as to what they did.

"As we explore their body, we see how they died and how they lived. We see the impact their occupation may have had.

"We've seen people in the past who worked in mines with poor lungs. We see joint replacements in individuals, perhaps they've had manual labour jobs."

Gregory stressed they are referred to as "patients", not bodies. For the students, respect for the donors is paramount.

"They become part of your study group family. We dissect in groups of seven or eight. Our body becomes the extra member of the group."

The "patients" are kept for up to three years, and then cremated in Burton-on-Trent - the service is attended by staff from the medical school.

Some families decide to hold their own funeral at a time and place of their choosing.

A special memorial service was held at Leicester Medical School, which is marking its 50th anniversary this year, to honour those who have donated their bodies to medical research.

Head of Anatomy at the University of Leicester, Prof Jacques, said body donors are "the central and most important aspect of the teaching that we do".

They represent only about 1 in 10,000 people who die in England each year.

Back in the operating room, where hundreds of body donors have passed through, there is a sign in Latin that underlines the important role they play.

It reads: "Let the dead teach the living".

How to become a body donor:

To become a donor, you need to fill out a consent form from Leicester Medical School's Body Donation Programme and it has to be witnessed by a family member or a friend.

But anyone thinking of becoming a donor is advised to tell a family member verbally and in writing.

Although an individual may give their consent while living, a donor will not be accepted after death if a post-mortem examination is required or the person has had an infectious disease.

There is no upper age admit to becoming a donor - the oldest was more than a 100 years old.

The whole process is regulated by the Human Tissue Authority.

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