Liver disease killed Helen Peacock’s baby at just eight months old. Here she writes about how a transplant could have saved her daughter.

Rebecca Peacock, of Shrewsbury, died after being unable to secure a liver transplant.

It’s now seven years since my daughter, Rebecca, died. She was eight months old and she passed away in my arms on Mothers’ Day 2002. Though much time has passed, I do not tire of telling her story. I do so in order to raise awareness of organ donation.

There is a chronic shortage of donors in the UK and the statistics make for frightening reading.

Presently, only 26 per cent of the population are donors. There are more than 9,000 people right now waiting for transplants and over 400 people died last year while waiting for a transplant. That figure is too high. It results in many more devastated families, like ours.

As I have sat down to write this story, tears have started to stream down my face.

Guy and Helen Peacock, from Shrewsbury, with daughter Rebecca, who was born with congenital liver disease.

Rebecca was born in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in July 2001. I already had my son, Jack, and he was so excited to know he now had a sister. However moments later our happiness was shattered when we found out Rebecca was very poorly. Our world crumbled in minutes and life became a blur. From there life took the hardest path I could ever have dreamt of.

We were transferred to Alder Hey, then St James’s, in Leeds and then to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Rebecca had a very poorly liver and was in need of a liver transplant.

We lived in hospitals throughout the eight months of Rebecca’s life; Jack lived there with us too. It was an existence which is hard to explain and very difficult to comprehend. My children are my life and are made all the more precious by three devastating miscarriages I had also suffered.

Let me tell you about Rebecca. She was beautiful and her strength was amazing. She coped with so much in her short life, yet her smile always lit up the room.

It is heartbreaking that she didn’t get to do any of the everyday things we take for granted. She didn’t see the outside world, didn’t see the birds, didn’t smell the flowers, didn’t feel the grass and didn’t get to play in the park. What we did have in those eight months, however, was a lifetime of love and hours and hours of cuddles. Rebecca was the bravest little girl I have ever met.

I never ever gave up hope. Rebecca battled so hard and despite seven harrowing trips to intensive care, Rebecca still fought on. I never ever hoped someone would die so Rebecca could live, I only asked for this: that if a family did suffer a tragedy they could think of Rebecca and other children like her.

Sadly on Mothers’ Day 2002 doctors decided to withdraw Rebecca’s treatment, she was too poorly and couldn’t go on. It is a day I will never forget. My beautiful daughter was laid in my arms, and as I sat there in shock, cuddling her close and telling her I loved her, I had to sit and wait for her to die. That is a memory that will never fade, it will never go away. Time doesn’t heal losing Rebecca, somehow you go on as you have to, there is no choice, but the hurt and the pain never changes. Part of me died that day with Rebecca, pain like that leaves a huge black hole in your life that can never be filled.

Life still goes on. Jack is a star and a very special boy, and life carries on for him. He has been through so much, life now has to be as normal as possible, but it is very hard. Rebecca would have been eight on the 27th of this month. She never got to celebrate a birthday. I can’t buy her presents, I can’t buy her a cake, I can’t plan her party. Instead I am thinking which flowers I will place on her grave. A poignant thought, perhaps, that I hope makes people think whether they could be an organ donor.

There are so many families out there going through what we did, and I would ask everyone to think of them.

Organ donation is a very personal choice, but I would ask this; if one of your loved ones or even you needed a donor tomorrow, would you say no? I think your answer to that tells you if you should be a donor or not.

If Rebecca had got a donor, I know those who gave their organs would have been the most selfless people in the world. They would have given the gift of life and I would have been eternally grateful and they would have had a very warm place in my heart forever.

As it is UK transplant week I would urge people, please think carefully about Organ Donation and discuss it with your loved ones, precious lives need to be saved.

Thank you.

• To become an organ donor, simply log onto www.uktransplant.org.uk or call the organ donor line on 0300 123 2323, which is open 24 hours a day. You can also email enquiries@nhsbt.nhs.uk