Poll: Should everyone in Britain automatically be placed on the organ donor register?

Sally-Ann Hart, known as Sal, started to have problems when she began to fall asleep at her desk. Her treatment included the removal of 80 per cent of her stomach and the fitting of a gastric sleeve. She has lost around 11 stone in little more than a year, which resulted in complications, operations, comas and technically 'dying' four times.

Mrs Hart, who lives in Chirk with husband David, said: "To survive, I would need a triple, possibly quadruple, organ transplant. I've been told that I'm brave, but having been close to dying it is obvious that I still have something else to achieve in life. If it means helping others, then that is what I will do.

"I know I could die with or without a transplant. The doctors said I'll probably just go to sleep and not wake up, so I live each day as it comes. When I feel well I go out and enjoy life as much as I can, and when I have a bad day then I chill out at home and have 'duvet days'."

In the past 18 months Mrs Hart, 60, has raised £4,500 for Multi-Organ Transplant Support (MOTS) with a sponsored walk around the Great Orme in Llandudno five days before her silver wedding anniversary in April.

She said: "Eighteen months ago the doctors wrote me off, but I've done so much since then. Obviously I wanted to raise as much money as I could, but also raise awareness of the importance of the new organ donation legislation. It may be too late for me, but I want my experiences to be as positive as they can be and if it encourages people to sign up on the donor register then I will have achieved something positive."

On Tuesday Mrs Hart will be heading to Cardiff to visit the Welsh Assembly Senedd to speak about her experiences at the launch of the new Welsh legislation which will mean that everyone is automatically placed on the organ donor register unless they opt out.

The move will dramatically increase the number of potential donors in Wales, although it is not applicable across the border in England.

She said: "I'm hoping to meet with the First Minister Carwyn Jones and Mark Drakeford, the health minister. It's a wonderful opportunity to stand up and say this is what it is. I've said I'm happy to share my story with the Senedd and talk about difficulties I've had. My husband was a Church in Wales minister and he gave up his job to look after me. We've been forced to sell our property and move into rented accommodation.

"I could sit at home and just cry, but life is for living. If I feel good then I go out and do things. But my life is completely different from what it was before, when I was a headteacher's PA in Cheshire, to now not being able to do very much at all."

Mrs Hart regularly attends St Oswald's Parish Church in Oswestry, and said her faith has helped her to cope with her illness.

"I think it's a big help with dealing with things," she said. "I look at it this way – I don't knock anything, I've been on the prayer list for a long time and I've had support from friends and everyone at church. I just get on with it, and humour has helped keep us going.

"If I feel good then I go out and do things. But my life is completely different from what it was before.

"Another thing that's changed is that I was a musician, but the toxins from my illness have affected my brain and I can't remember how to play the piano any more. I can read the music, but my fingers won't work.

"I get tired very easily, but I am now under the support of Nightingale House Hospice for complementary therapies and physiotherapy to try and improve my mobility and quality of life.

"Life is for living. I am just an ordinary woman who is having to get on with what I've been dealt. I have so much to be thankful for, and if people think I'm an inspiration then so be it."

Ken Skates, AM for Clwyd South, invited Mrs Hart to the Senedd.

He said: "Sal is suffering from multiple organ failure linked to diabetes and needs a liver, pancreas, small bowel and possibly a kidney too.

"She has been told her chances are minimal, but I hope that by the Welsh Government introducing this new legislation and by raising awareness that we might also be able to help her and many others in similar situations."