A CEREMONY was held at the Renal Unit at Westmorland General Hospital to unveil a new Kendal Organ Donor Town plaque.

A plaque was installed on parkland at Waterside after a campaign by the then-mayor Chris Hogg to sign up as many people to the organ donor register.

But it was vandalised and then stolen in 2016.

Now, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron joined Rachael Hogg from the Kendal Organ Donor Town committee and Nikki Hargreaves from NHS Blood and Transplant to unveil the plaque in its new home.

Rachael, who received a kidney transplant from husband Cllr Hogg, said: “We set a target to increase the number of donors in Kendal by 1,000 – something we outstripped. Since then we have increased the number of donors by 25 per cent and now 47 per cent of the population is on the organ donor register.

“I would like to thanks University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in supporting us – but most of all I would like to thank the people of Kendal in supporting us to achieve what we have.”

Mr Farron added: “Rachael and Chris set out on a really important mission which continues to this day. Their story is massively moving on a personal level – but has also raised the awareness of organ donation to get us to the level of organ donation we have in the town – and which continues to save lives.”