This almost unacknowledged group of people probably qualify for the highest accolade of all, and I would like to bring them to your notice.

The group of parents out there who have had a child die as a result of an accident, then who are able to dissociate themselves from their grief and pain for enough time to make their child’s organs available for others.

The single worst event which can happen in your life is the death of a child.

During the initial stages of shock and anguish, the last thing on most people’s minds would be the carving up of their child’s body to be used for organ donation.

So, who are these people?

People with enough guts to put aside their own loss to save another life, a trait which is almost certainly rarer than those other heroes who put their own lives at risk to help others.

Many religions specifically forbid organ donation too.

A friend of my wife has a daughter who had an incurable liver disease, with her only option for a life much beyond her seven years being a transplant. A donor was eventually found in the guise of a dead Australian child, details unknown.

The liver was flown from Australia to enable a transplant to take place, which has turned out spectacularly well, with the girl now living a pretty much normal life, back at school, healthy and happy.

On one side, elation for that family for the gift of life to their beloved daughter, on the other, the bleak despair of a life without your child.

My respect for families who do this knows no bounds; small comfort perhaps, a lot less than the comfort of knowing that your child truly did NOT die in vain. He or she lives on as a lifelong testament to your courage.

I salute you.

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