We know Jessica is here with us... she is keeping those people alive
THE mother of a teenager killed in a car crash said the decision to donate her daughter's organs and save lives kept her memory alive.
Lindsey Adderson said it would have been a difficult choice but her daughter, Jessica Iddon, had actually spoken about becoming an organ donor a few weeks before her death.
The 17-year-old, of Old Hackney Lane, Darley Dale, was a passenger in a Vauxhall Corsa which was involved in a collision on the B5057 at Stone Edge, near Matlock.
She was taken to Chesterfield Royal Hospital after the incident in June 2008 but doctors later told Lindsey, 44, her daughter was brain-dead.
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They said her body was being kept alive by machines and, because Jessica was bleeding from irreparable internal injuries, there was no chance she would survive.
After the decision was made to donate Jessica's organs, half of her liver went to a two-year-old girl and the other half to a 59-year-old man with non-alcoholic liver disease.
One of her kidneys and her pancreas were transplanted into a 43-year-old man with diabetes and the other kidney was given to a mother-of-two with polycystic kidney disease.
Jessica's stem cells were also used to help others.
Lindsey said: "The decision had a massive impact on those people and their families because it meant they didn't lose someone, like we did.
"At the time, it was not something every family member agreed with but, over time, I think we are all happy to think we fulfilled Jessica's wishes and desire.
"At the same time, we know she is still here with us, because she is keeping those people alive."
Jessica — who enjoyed horse riding and had ambitions to be a journalist — had been due home from a shift at Sainsbury's, where she was working part-time.
Lindsey said, a few weeks earlier, Jessica had been cooking dinner and talking to her about how she was signing up to be an organ donor.
She said her daughter had said they could take everything "except my eyes".
Lindsey said: "What helped more than anything was the fact we had talked about it.
"So, when it came to that point where we had to come to a decision, it almost made it a simple one.
"It was still a really hard decision, though, because what I wanted was to hold Jessica in my arms as she took her last breath and to say goodbye.
"But, in some ways, it did help with the grieving process and, in time, to feel that little bit better."
Since Jessica's death, Lindsey and many members of their family and friends have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Health experts said more than 10,000 people in the UK need a transplant and, of these, 1,000 will die each year waiting.
For more information or to join the register, visit www. organdonation.nhs.uk.
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