By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

A TAYSIDE teenager is on the look out for converts.

Jennifer Buchan (14) has already persuaded her best friend to carry a donor card, volunteering her organs to help someone else in the event of untimely death.

Jennifer, of Montrose, has a very good reason for carrying a donor card herself and understanding the importance of encouraging more and more people to carry a card.

At the start of National Transplant Week, the Montrose Academy pupil was asked why she carried a donor card. In typical teenager fashion, the response was brief but to the point, “Because my mum got a transplant and somebody saved her life.”

Her mum Allison’s illness totally disrupted family life before she was given a kidney and pancreas transplant.

The pancreas is the organ responsible for producing insulin, and with that malfunctioning since she was 12, Allison had to inject herself every day for more than two decades. Thanks to the pancreas transplant, she is now no longer a diabetic and has said goodbye to the daily jabs.

Kidney failure meant three trips a week to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee for renal dialysis, hooked up to a machine for several hours while poisons were cleansed from the blood.

On dialysis days, the trip to Ninewells started very early and Allison was not home to see her daughter off to school.

“I was away at the back of six in the morning, so the night before Jennifer would stay with her granny and grandad and had to stay for school dinners, then at night time I would be there for her,” said Allison.

The 36-year-old who, as a complication of diabetes, became blind when her daughter was just eight, said she would like to thank parents Ron and Linda Gouck, her brother Derek and sister Jacqueline and husband Robert for their support during the years of ill health.

The regular dialysis and ill health associated with organ failure meant that Allison was not a suitable candidate for acquiring a guide dog.

Now the transplant has not only given her new vigour and an end to the lengthy round trips for dialysis but she can also prepare for training with a guide dog.

The Buchans can also now look forward to having a holiday together, the last three holiday plans having been spoiled by Allison’s ill health.

However, she was not too troubled about missing the last holiday to Benidorm—receiving a call to say suitable organs were available for a transplant just three weeks before she was due to fly out to Spain.

Naturally, Allison opted for the transplant and was making such a good recovery that, by the time the holiday date came around, Robert and Jennifer kept to the plan and left Allison at home.

“The week after I got home, the three of us were supposed to be going away but I would rather have a transplant than go abroad. The other two went to Benidorm.

“There were loads of us booked to go together so Bob and Jennifer went and I stayed at home. It was a break for them.”

Coinciding with the start of National Transplant Week, Allison urged people to consider carrying a donor card and to talk to relatives about their wishes in the event of death.

“It is worth doing to save a life,” she said. “I know this sounds terrible to some people, but if you are dead you don’t need your organs.”

Allison is one of 645 people in the UK to receive a transplant since April 1. Another 5830 people are still waiting.

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register call 0845 6060400.