A MOTHER has urged people to alert their family if they wish to donate organs in the event of their death - after her son’s life was saved.

Six-year-old Hasnath Siddiquey had a life-saving transplant after suffering heart failure when he was just three.

Afia Begum, Hasnath’s mother, is sharing her son’s story for Organ Donation Week, which runs until September 10 – to encourage more people to speak to their families about their wishes.

Hasnath, from Darlington, became ill around Christmas 2014 and doctors initially believed it to be a routine infection.

However, he rapidly deteriorated and was admitted to hospital after his face swelled and his breathing became laboured.

An X-ray revealed he had an enlarged heart, as the muscle on the left side of his heart had weakened and stretched.

He had an emergency operation to fit a Left Ventricular Assist Device, a type of heart pump that can slow the decline and keep people alive until they can receive a transplant.

“I thought the doctors were going to tell me this was the end,” said Mrs Begum.

“When he recovered he was stable and well and he was running around doing all the normal things that boys do.”

Figures show 66 people in County Durham have died on the waiting list for an organ transplant over the past decade, whilst the number is 92 in North Yorkshire and 142 across Tyne and Wear.

Ms Begum said she is incredibly grateful to the donor and their family, and has struggled to come to terms with her emotions around the transplant.

“I felt like another person lost their child in order for my child to live - I just couldn’t bear the thought of another family losing their loved one,” she said.

“I just didn’t want anyone else to have gone through what I almost went through – it’s just so amazing that the donor’s family were willing to do this.”

Anthony Clarkson, assistant director of organ donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “It’s a tragedy that people are dying unnecessarily every year across the region waiting for transplants.

“We know that if everyone who supported donation talked about it and agreed to donate, most of those lives would be saved.”