THE WIDOW of Jamie Gilroy, co-founder of one of Scotland's best loved music festivals, has said that his transplanted organs have been used to save the lives of several other people, following his death from a gunshot wound.
Patsy Gilroy, a former Dumfries and Galloway Council convenor, has told how news of her Wickerman Festival director husband's death came as her daughter Jennie was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.
She spoke after receiving the Order of St John award at a ceremony to honour the families of Scots whose loved ones gave permission for transplant surgery in the last year.
Mr Gilroy, 66, was found dead at his Dumfries and Galloway farm in December last year with serious head injuries, believed caused by a firearm. Police said the incident was not suspicious.
Mrs Gilroy has explained how the family came to the decision to allow organ donation.
She had been to London to be with her daughter Jennie, who was receiving treatment for breast cancer, when she received a phone call telling her that her husband of 40 years had been found with a gunshot wound to the head.
"We had to wait until Jennie’s chemotherapy was completed – we couldn’t rush that - then start the four hour journey home. We had plenty of time to contemplate what had gone on," she said.
"I spoke to my brother-in-law Pete who had got to the hospital. Jamie was still alive then, but had suffered irreparable damage to his brain. It was clear he was not going to survive and the medical people had asked if we would consider organ donation.
"Pete asked me what I thought and I said, ‘Jamie is not going to live, so why not?’.
"Jen and I talked about it all the way up and when we got to the hospital in Dumfries there was a very nice nurse there who explained what was involved. It was all very complicated.
"I’m a person quite used to making hard decisions. When my son George died in a car crash (in Australia) when he was 19, there was a lot of opportunity to wallow in it, but that’s not a good place to be. You have to be positive.
"You are so cross, so upset and I kind of thought, well someone else is going to benefit from this, even if we aren’t."
The two-day festival which Mr Gilroy co-founded has been held at his East Kirkcarswell Farm at Dundrennan, near Kirkcudbright, since 2002 and now regularly attracts nearly 20,000 revellers.
There had been questions over whether it would go ahead this year after Mr Gilroy's death, but daughter Jennie, now festival director, said she was determined to continue her father's work.
Mrs Gilroy was one of 38 family representatives to receive the Order of St John from Major General Mark Strudwick, the prior head of the care charity St John Scotland, which has been running the ceremony in conjunction with the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) service for three years.
She received a badge bearing the words "Add life: Give Hope” and heard General Strudwick tell the gathering of 120 family members and friends: "The courage of these families, to make the decision to grant permission for organ donation at a time of great loss, is both humbling and inspiring.”
The NHS Blood and Transplant service revealed recently that the number of organ donations and transplants has fallen in the UK for the first time in 11 years. Figures show they are down by five percent on the previous year. In line with most other years, more than 40 percent of families turned down requests for donations on the death of a loved one.
Sally Johnston, the director of donation and transplantation at NHSBT recently issued an appeal to potential donors.
To join the NHS Organ Donor Register visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300123 2323 or text SAVE to 62323.
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