Faced to watch the impact liver and kidney diseases are having on her four-year-old son, Sarah Lamont has no doubts about donating her own organs to save his life.
Joe, who lives with his 36-year-old mother Sarah in Ballymena, Ireland, was born with a rare condition called autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.
This diagnosis meant the youngster had to have both of his kidneys removed and he now relies on dialysis to survive.
During his first four years, Joe also developed advanced liver disease – a condition that requires him to have an organ transplant.
“In June, Joe had been on the transplant list for over a year and there was no sign of him getting a call,” Ms Lamont says, according to Ireland’s Independent.
“Meanwhile, we saw other wee kids getting kidneys from their mum or dad. It’s life changing for them.”
It was this epiphany – or “brainwave” as she describes it – that spurred the devoted mum to contact Birmingham’s Children Hospital in a bid to donate one of her kidneys and part of her liver to her son-in-need.
Ms Lamont, who soon discovered she is the same blood match as Joe, is scheduled for surgery on January 25 – but she stresses that she would have the operation right now, if she could.
“I’m lucky I can give Joe a liver and kidney, but if he had a heart problem he could die waiting,” she says.
“I’ll be all right, I’m a very optimistic person. If I could do it today I would, the sooner the better.
“I said to him the other night ‘this is going to be your year Joe’ and he got excited and said to me ‘I’m getting a new liver and a new kidney!'”
This family’s story comes as a major public health change in France sees all citizens become automatic organ donors.
The new regulations mean unless a citizen speciffically chooses to opt out through a national database, their organs will be donated when they die. Previously, anyone who had not specified whether or not they wanted to donate after dying could have their organs’ fate left up to relatives.
According to Organ Donation New Zealand there are currently more than 550 Kiwis waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.
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