Jill Saward: Inspirational organ donor honoured
An inspirational campaigner for sex attack victims has been honoured in a moving ceremony for donating her organs.
Jill Saward, who used to live in Telford, was the first rape victim to waive her right to anonymity after robbers broke into her home at a vicarage in Ealing, London, in 1986, and raped her then seriously assaulted her father, the Rev Michael Saward, as well as her boyfriend at the time.
The perpetrators’ received a relatively lenient sentence and her fierce campaigning led to direct changes in the law.
She died unexpectedly in January this year from a stroke at the age of 51. Both of her kidneys were donated to men in their 40s.
As a result, her family were one of thousands across the country who received the Order of St John Award for Organ Donation which recognised 1,413 people who chose to sign up to the organ donor register.
Her husband Gavin Drake, 47, said: “We approached staff at the hospital about organ donation as we knew instinctively that Jill would want to become an organ donor. Jill was always available to support people suffering and would often be up during the night talking online to victims of abuse from across the world offering words of comfort and support.
“Jill dedicated the last 30 years of her life to helping people so it is fitting that her last act was to help others. We hope her kidneys have now given a new lease of life to the men who received them.
A tree is decorated in her memory at the Christmas Tree Festival in St Luke’s Church in Cannock. Jill lived in Telford in the 90s and in Hednesford before then.
Her family received the award on her behalf from Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for the West Midlands, John Crabtree OBE at the St Martin’s in-the-Bull-Ring in Birmingham.
The award is run in conjunction with NHS Blood and Transplant. During 2016 and 2017, the number of deceased donors went up from 1,364 to 1,413, which is a four per cent rise.
There are now more than 23.6 million people on the NHS organ donation register but there are still 6,400 people on the UK transplant waiting list and around three people die each day waiting for a transplant.
