West Yorkshire woman makes appeal to find kidney donor on anniversary of opt-in law

• Video report by David Hirst

A West Yorkshire woman is appealing for help to find a kidney transplant after being told her chances of finding a match would be like "winning the lottery".

Keeley Copper-Spence's appeal comes a year after the opt-out rule for organ donation came into force, which has seen almost 300 people donate organs despite not having expressed a will to do so before their death.

Under the law in England, people are presumed to have consented to their organs being donated after their death unless they had opted-out, although relatives are consulted and can still block organ donations.

However, organ donation has been hit by the pandemic in the last year as patients who die as a result of the disease can not donate organs.

Keeley, who has a three-year-old daughter, has been on dialysis for the last two years.

She said: "I look at my Mum and her friends and they're in their 70s. And they're walking round shopping centres and going for days out.

"And I have the energy of, say, someone in their 90s."

Two previous transplants for Keeley have failed as antibodies in her blood rejected the new organs.

She has appealed for potential donors to contact St James' Hospital in Leeds - a major centre for transplants.

People can look into Kidney donation at the Leeds Kidney Unit transplant page.