Brave Holly spearheads TV campaign

BRAVE Holly Shaw, 21, who is waiting for a kidney transplant, is spearheading a television campaign to encourage people to become organ donors.
Warrington student Holly has joined Channel 4’s young army of “Battlefront” campaigners. She is taking her story nationwide in the hope that it will help save lives, including her own.
Holly suffered kidney failure four years ago after a sudden illness. Her only hope of regaining a normal life is to receive a kidney transplant, but after three years on the waiting list she knows first hand the reality of the chronic shortage of organ donors in the UK.
She joined the television programme and her campaign idea has received so many votes that it currently holds the position of “Most Popular Campaign” out of the 59 entries so far received.
Holly said: “I am delighted that my Gift of Life campaign idea has been accepted onto the Battlefront website and have been astounded at the support and numbers of votes it has received in just five days.
“I am passionate about raising awareness of the importance of organ donation and am determined to make it through to the final stages of the competition as I know this campaign really will save lives.”
For the last four years Holly has been kept alive by a dialysis machine which performs the work that her kidneys used to do. She spends three days a week in hospital attached to the machine, is only allowed to drink 500mls of fluid a day and suffers from constant tiredness and nausea.
Despite this she is in her final year of a degree in Childhood Studies at Chester University and earlier this year became the North-West Advocate for the UK organ donation charity “Live Life Then Give Life.”
The charity’s chairman Emma Harris said: “Holly is an inspiration to us all and despite what she deals with on a daily basis, is always smiling and positive.”