Transplant patient visits those who saved her life

I first met Natalie Kerr about 4 years ago. She was suffering from a condition called pulmonary hypertension that affected both her lungs and her heart.

Despite trying all sorts of treatments including pioneering stem cell treatment in America, nothing worked. The young mother of two was given just a year to live.

Her only chance of survival was a double lung transplant. Natalie very bravely agreed that I could follow her story and when she was called to say they'd found her a match, she rang me so that I could come and film the moment she hoped would save her life. It did.

The operation went well and a year on, Natalie can breathe, she can be a mum to her two children and she's living proof that transplants really can transform lives.

Natalie was lucky. She only waiting 4 months from the time she was placed on the transplant list to when she got the operation. But many others aren't so lucky.

Since her operation, Natalie has worked tirelessly to try and spread the message of organ donation. She's gone into schools and given talks and has appeared many times on Granada Reports over the last 12 months to tell her story and explain what a difference it made to hers and her family's life.

Who better then to get the message across about organ donation than Natalie herself. Which is why we decided to make her a reporter for the day and get her to look at the issues surrounding the acute shortage of donors and find out the reasons why so many don't add their names to the donor register.

With me as her producer, we went back to Wythenshawe hospital where she had her operation to talk to those who work there, and also a lady who had a transplant 24 years ago.

We also went to an office in Manchester to find out what the public really felt about organ donation. What Natalie found out was fascinating.

She admits herself that the whole process of looking into this issue for Granada Reports was an eye-opening experience. Speaking to others and telling them her story, she even manages to change people's minds.

Thanks to her, many people have already added their names to the organ donor register. I hope many more will feel compelled to go to the website and do the same when they watch her fascinating report.