The gift of life: Organ donations after tragedies in and around Sheffield

Earlier this month, Rinica Warner, aged 29, tragically passed away after collapsing in the street two days earlier when she dropped her young son off at a dance class.

As a supporter of organ donation, her wishes were followed and her lasting legacy is the gift of hope offered to two kidney patients who received a transplant using her organs.

“She was on the donor list, and her wish was that she wanted to help a family,” said her father, Jayson Warner. “That’s what she has done.”

Organ donation can be done by living people, however the majority of donations come from people who have passed away. According to the NHS, not many people die in ways that allow them their organs to be donated, making every potential donor “precious”.

In 2020, the lives of seven people, between the ages of 20 and 50, were saved by footballer Jordan Sinnott, 25, whose organs were donated after his death. Soldiers and burn victims were also able to benefit from skin grafts thanks to the footballer registering as an organ donor.

Jordan’s brother Tom said: “He loved giving and even after he’s passed he managed to do that. At least his heart is still beating.”

Jordan died at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital after being found in Market Place, Retford, in January 2020 with a suspected fractured skull.

Jordan played for Matlock Town, with Alfreton and Chesterfield among the clubs he played for previously.

Sheffield boxer Scott Westgarth saved the lives of five people through organ donation when he passed away in 2018 as his kidneys, pancreas, heart and lungs were used for transplants.

Scott, from Penistone, died after a boxing match at the Doncaster Dome in 2018.

In 2019, 15-year-old, Dan Robinson, was tragically killed in a car accident in Hillsborough and his mother, Debbie Enever, made the decision to donate his organs.

She said: “I wanted Dan to have the chance to do one last amazing thing. And I knew he’d have been 100 per cent behind that decision.”