Organ donation - "It's rewarding to know he helped some other little lad to live"

Maggie Sherwin's young son, Dilan, died after he was involved in a road accident. But as she and her husband Simon came to terms with losing Dilan, they decided the six-year-old's death should not be in vain. The couple donated their child's organs to help save others.

"We had seen a programme about organ transplantation on a television in the ward when we were sitting with Dilan. He was very badly injured and unconscious, and we began talking about what we should do if he died.

"Dilan was a very caring little boy. Whenever he saw something on the television about children in hospital – he called them 'the poorly children' – he would run and ask me what we could do for them.

"That side of his nature made it easier for us to take the decision to donate his organs."

Dilan suffered brain damage in the accident on December 18, 2001 and died on New Year's Eve.

"We had constantly talked to him as we sat at his bedside, and we both knew deep down that he couldn't hear us and wouldn't have been able to understand us fully even if he could. But we both knew he would agree. He was going to be able to do something to help the 'poorly children' at last."

A London boy aged five received Dilan's heart, and one of his kidneys was transplanted into a 39-year-old woman from Manchester. Both are doing well and Maggie recently received a card from the boy.

"It made me really happy to get that card. There was nothing we could have done to save Dilan's life, but it's really rewarding to know he helped some other little lad to live.

"I find a lot of comfort in knowing that if Dilan was not to have a full life, then at least another little boy will have the chance."