Two men enjoying a second chance at life are today urging everyone to make a special Christmas pledge – by joining the organ donor register.

Eastern Daily Press: Robert SuttonRobert Sutton (Image: Archant)

Paul Welsh and Robert Sutton are both backing NHS Blood and Transplant's 'What Are You Waiting For?' Christmas campaign asking people to spend a few minutes over the festive period signing up to give the greatest gift of all - the gift of life.

In the last 12 months 463 people – adults and children – have died waiting for a transplant. In the last five years 2,714 people have died on the waiting list.

Around 6,500 people in the UK are hoping 2017 will bring them the same phone call which saved Mr Sutton's life and meant an escape from illness and gruelling dialysis for Mr Welsh.

Mr Welsh, 54, of Honeysuckle Close, North Walsham, is enjoying a normal life again after his third kidney transplant.

He has become an active voluntary campaigner for organ donation, working with the national charity Live Life Give Life which has a mission to get everyone to sign the organ donor register.

He is also a community champion with Kidney Research UK and a member of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's organ donation committee.

Research showed that of those willing to join the register, 35pc simply 'hadn't got round to it,' said Mr Welsh.

Since the 1960s, almost 80,000 transplant recipients have been given the chance of a new beginning, thanks to more than 30,000 people who donated organs after their deaths.

But every day about three people die in the UK because there are not enough donors, so their phones never rang.

Motor mechanic Mr Welsh said he knew he was one of the lucky ones. He began suffering with kidney problems aged seven and, before his most recent operation, had two kidney transplants, including one in 2008 donated by his wife, Mandy.

It failed after 15 months and he had to undergo dialysis for four hours, three times a week, at Cromer Hospital.

'Since my last transplant I've enjoyed four family holidays which wouldn't have been possible before,' he said.

'I'm able to go out this Christmas to lunches and dinners with no dietary restrictions. I'm able to work all day and get more involved with my career. It's all made a vast difference to the quality of my life.'

Mr Sutton, 24, was born with the condition biliary atresia and received a liver transplant aged three.

He has just celebrated the 21st anniversary of his transplant and is in good health, taking courses to make up for chunks of time lost at school after two periods of organ rejection, volunteering in a Cromer charity shop, keeping fit at the gym and learning to drive.

The family only know that the donor was a 15-year-old killed when he was knocked off his bike.

Mr Sutton's mother Hilary said: 'We are forever grateful to our donor's family who had the forethought to help another child at a time of tragedy. Robert wouldn't be here today without their kindness.'

Mr Sutton, of Norwich Road, Aylsham, added: 'There are lots of people in the UK that have a second chance of life and are walking proof that organ transplants do work.'