A football team is hoping for a good result from a donor campaign.

Middlesbrough Football Club is hoping everyone will help by carrying a donor card, agreeing to donate life-saving organs in the event of their death.

Sister Tracy Ryder, of the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said: "Organ donation plays a vital role in saving life and we are urging everyone to carry a card.

"Some day we may be in need of a new heart, liver or kidney ourselves. We are constantly in need of organs and carrying a donor card costs nothing.''

Ms Ryder, who works in intensive care, and Julie Wardle, transplant co-ordinator at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, are helping to lead locally a Government-backed campaign to reverse falling consent rates for organ donation in the UK.

They were joined at the Boro's Rockcliffe training ground, near Darlington, by the team's Gareth Southgate and Robbie Stockdale.

The team has been working with the local UK Transplant team to raise awareness of the scheme and highlight its importance.