“The decision had been made; I didn’t have to make a decision. I was following his wishes.”

Those are Anushka Persad’s words, barely a year after the death of her husband Chris as a result of a road traffic accident on the outskirts of Inverness. Chris received excellent and swift treatment on the scene and was rushed to Intensive Care at Raigmore Hospital.

“Chris was always lucky. I always thought Chris would be fine,” she explains.

But it was clear from Chris’s injuries that he wouldn’t be leaving hospital alive.

Because the Nairn couple had loved watching medical dramas like Gray’s Anatomy and House and had talked about the storylines around difficult topics including organ donation, Anushka knew exactly what Chris’s wishes were.

And so, when the air-traffic controller’s luck ran out, Anushka raised the question of organ donation with the staff at Raigmore, and they took things from there. Chris was assessed as a good candidate for organ donation, and one of his kidneys and part of his liver were transplanted into patients on the waiting list. A microvalve from his heart was removed and has been kept in storage until it is needed.

Anushka was very grateful that the couple had had those casual conversations while watching the telly, not imaging that either of them would ever have to carry out the other’s wishes.
As Anushka explains, “No one really wants to have to think about organ donation. They don’t want to think they’ll ever be sick enough to need an organ from someone else, and nobody wants to think that they or anyone they love will ever be in the position to be a donor.”

But the worst did happen, suddenly and unexpectedly. Having had those conversations in a relaxed way, meant that amongst thinking about the thousands of other things Anushka had to do, like telling the couple’s children that their dad wasn’t coming home, planning his funeral, and informing friends and wider family of his death, Anushka didn’t have to decide about whether Chris’s organs and tissue should be donated to help others live. Chris had made that decision for himself.

But a year on, what impact has Chris having been an organ donor had on Anushka?

“It’s nice to know that there are parts of Chris that are out there and still alive, she says, “ but he’s not here.

“But”, she adds, “I think he’d have been really chuffed some of his organs could be used, because that’s what he wanted. He wanted to be helpful.”
Since Chris’s accident Anushka has spoken to many, many people about organ donation, encouraging them to have the conversations with their families, friends, or whoever will be asked about organ donation if they die in the rare circumstances in which their organs could help others.

She likens it to having a will; “A will takes away the decision about who gets what from your personal belongings, this takes away the decision about who can have what from your body if you don’t need it anymore. It makes it easier on your family.”

And Anushka is candid and honest about what she would like to have happen with her own body too. “Once I’ve died, my body’s not going to be doing anything. It’s going to be cremated. So I would want my body to be to as useful as it could.”

Perhaps uniquely, Anushka and her family have now experienced both sides of organ donation.

She explains, “23 years ago my brother received corneal implants, which gave him back his sight. Bizarrely, I don’t think that affected our decision in any way. You don’t set out wanting to change someone else’s life, you just set out to be helpful. But I guess changing lives is the impact. Chris just wanted to be helpful. So make a decision and talk to your family. Let them know what you wish.”