Gloria Owens, 67, is one of Wales’s longest living transplant recipients. She received her life changing replacement kidney over 31 years ago. Her illness was first diagnosed when she was just 19 and she was put on dialysis when her condition worsened over the years.

“But I never got used to dialysing,” she says. “I had needle phobia and each session would be horrific for me. But after about three years on the waiting list, I received the call saying a kidney match was available. Even though I needed the transplant desperately, I felt very emotional because it meant that someone else had died. But the difference in me was almost immediate. I focused on my health and fitness and, although I’d never been a sporty person, I competed in the British Transplant Games, winning 51 medals over a span of 25 years.”

It is hoped that more people like Gloria will be helped when the new organ donation legislation – ‘presumed consent’ – comes into force in Wales in 2015 and that it will increase the number of organs available by 25 per cent. It means that it will be presumed a person has agreed to donate their organs unless they have specifically opted out before they died.