Dying woman’s last wish to donate kidney to her mother denied by rules

A mother in urgent need of a kidney transplant has been denied the organs of her dying daughter – against her wishes. Laura Ashworth, 21, died after suffering massive brain damage when she stopped breathing because of a suspected asthma attack.

The mother-of-one wanted to help her mother, Rachel Leake, who has kidney failure. But as devastated Ms Leake, of Bierley, near Bradford, prepared to pay her last respects to her only child, a transplant co-ordinator told her that Laura's kidneys would be going to strangers.

Ms Leake is also a diabetic and could have benefited from her daughter's pancreas, which was also denied.



Family and friends, who all knew of Miss Ashworth's intentions to give her kidney to her mother as a live donor, tried to persuade the authorities to change their minds and enlisted the help of local MP Gerry Sutcliffe, but without success. One of Miss Ashworth's kidneys went to a man in Sheffield and the second to a man in London. Her liver was given to a 15-year-old girl.

Ms Leake, 39, said: "I am not finding comfort at the moment in the fact that she helped three people. All I wanted to do was carry out her wishes. She would have been so upset that she was able to help other people and not her own mum.

"Even the transplant co-ordinator was crying her eyes out. She really tried to get them to change their minds but her bosses would not budge." Ms Leake, now the main carer for her two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter Macie, needs dialysis three times a week to stay alive.