Posthumous award for grandma after organ donation

Beloved grandmother Elaine Moodie, of Sighthill, died in March after a short illness.

Her husband Allan and two sons Ross and Gregg, said giving her organs for transplant is what she would have wanted, as someone who loved to help people.

The popular pupil support assistant worked at Murrayburn Primary School for 25 years, where a memorial bench has been erected in her memory.

Her son Ross said: “She spent her life working to help others, so she’d want to continue to help people after she was gone.”

The close-knit family received a St John Scotland Award in honour of her selfless act, inscribed with the words “Add life, give hope”, at a moving ceremony at the Botanics yesterday.

Husband Allan added: “We didn’t sign the register while she was alive but we had spoken about it so I know it’s what she wanted.

“It’s so easy to do now, just going online and ticking a box, rather than filling out any forms. It’s for the greater good.”

The Moodies joined 46 other families from across Scotland for the ceremony, which is the fourth annual event hosted by the charity St John Scotland and NHS Blood and Transplant.

The Prior of St John Scotland, Major General Mark Strudwick, who presented the awards, said: “We are exceptionally proud to work alongside NHS Blood and Transplant in order to facilitate this deeply moving event, which is now in its fourth year.

“St John Scotland is dedicated to saving and enhancing lives wherever possible. We fully appreciate how vital organ donation is and recognise the courage of those families who gave permission for their loved ones’ organs to be donated, so that others are given the chance to live.

“It is genuinely inspirational.”

Scotland has the highest organ donor sign-up rate in the UK, with 43 per cent of the population on the register.

Despite the fact that 415 individuals received organ donations in the past year, people are still dying while waiting for a transplant.

There are around 540 Scots with life-threatening illnesses on the transplant waiting list.

Sally Johnson, director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “The sense of pride families feel at these ceremonies is truly inspirational.

“Everyone I have spoken to is glad that their relative was able to be an organ donor.

“Families take great comfort from knowing that their loved one went on to save and improve the lives of desperately ill people. Three people die each day in the UK in need of an organ.

“Transplant patients tell us that organ donors and their families are heroes.

“This award is a chance for us all to recognise their bravery and generosity.”