THIRTY years ago, Graham Sparrowhawk had just a one-in-four chance of surviving.

His life was saved by a man he had never met.

The odds in those early days of transplanting an organ from one person to another were not favourable. Yet here Mr Sparrowhawk is, three decades later, still alive and talking about how becoming an organ donor can mean so much.

Aged just 26, and the father of a baby son, the former hatchery worker from Cote, near Bampton, suffered crippling kidney failure.

Within months, his diseased kidneys were removed and he had no choice but to undergo 18 hours of gruelling dialysis a week until a young motorcyclist's death saved his life.

Mr Sparrowhawk, now 58 and the Pastor of the Baptist Church in Aston, near Bampton, said: "I had no idea I was ill, but I went to give blood and that showed up something wasn't quite right. I underwent tests and was told I had acute renal failure.

"Of course I was shocked and it gave me a lot of questions.

"I was worried about whether I'd be able to continue working and supporting my family and obviously if I'd survive, but the doctors told me that a special low-potassium diet would help keep my condition under control.

"I remember being on a caravan holiday in Brean Sands shortly afterwards and spending most of the time cooking. If I wanted to eat potatoes I had to soak them overnight and then boil them twice to get rid of the potassium."

The diet worked for a while, but Mr Sparrowhawk's condition deteriorated.

Doctors told him his kidneys were so diseased they would have to remove them.

He said: "I pleaded with them to let me keep them, but they said it was no good.

"We had to have our home adapted for the dialysis equipment, which in those days was very large.

"I had to dialysise three times a week for around six hours at a time and also go to the Churchill three times a week for checks and blood tests.

"Of course it affected my family life. My wife Shirley had to deal with most things and I missed out on quite a lot of time with her and my son, but I had no choice."

After six months of dialysis, Mr Sparrowhawk was thrown a lifeline - a donor kidney had been found.

He said: "I learned it had come from a young man who had been killed in a motorcycle accident.

"I was so grateful, but also very sad that someone had lost their life.

"The doctors told me I had to go in early the very next day for the op and I was filled with different emotions.

"That next day as my brother drove me along the A40 I looked at the fields of corn and remembered wondering if I would see them again. I knew the surgery carried high risks."

Mr Sparrowhawk was the tenth person from Oxfordshire to undergo a kidney transplant, performed by a team led by the acclaimed surgeon, Sir Peter Morris, in 1975.

At that time the operation was still in its infancy and the chance of successful transplantation was just 25 per cent.

He said: "In the first few weeks after surgery I experienced some severe rejection problems.

"It was quite traumatic. I had to take some very powerful drugs to stop my body rejecting the kidney and at one point the doctors said they were going to take it back out, but I pleaded with them to give it one more day and it improved."

Within six months of the transplant Mr Sparrowhawk's life had been transformed.

He said: "I was well enough to go back to work part time, I had more energy and there was no more dialysis, so my family life was much better.

"There were still lots of follow-up appointments, but my life was turned around."

In the years since, Mr Sparrowhawk left his work at the hatchery and joined the ministry.

And 30 years on and now a father of three sons, his kidney is still going strong.

He said: "I treat every day as a blessing and I am so grateful to the person who donated their kidney to me.

"But I am saddened by the fact that so many people are still going without transplants because of the shortage of organs.

"I strongly support a change in the law to make organ donation an opt-out system, rather than an opt-in system, because I believe this would result in more organs for donation and would also be kinder to the relatives - it must be very difficult for them and the doctors who approach them for permission to use their loved ones' organs.

"And of course I encourage everyone I meet to sign the Organ Donor Register.

"It only takes a few minutes but it could prolong someone else's life for years."

Sixty-seven people are waiting for an organ transplant in the county. Thirteen people have already died in the county in the last four years whilst waiting.

And doctors warn there will be more deaths unless the decision to donate organs is taken out of people's hands.

The clinical director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, Prof Peter Friend, said there were more than 400 people from Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Northanmptonshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, waiting for kidney and pancreas transplants at Oxford Transplant Centre.

He said: "Here in Oxfordshire, patients are waiting for years for transplants and people are dying because they are on dialysis for so long."

The Government wants a radical shake-up of the donor system, whereby people opt out of donating organs, instead of opting in. In the UK it isn't automatically assumed that everyone wants to be a donor after their death.

UK residents have to make their wishes known by telling their family, submitting their details to join the NHS Organ Donor Register or carrying a donor card.

But ultimate permission must be sought from relatives.

Spain has a 'soft' opt-out system, where even if the person hasn't themselves opted out of donation, the views of relatives are sought and they can refuse.

Austria has a 'hard' opt-out system which means that the views of relatives aren't taken into account at all and they can't refuse consent.

After Austria passed a presumed consent law in 1982, the number of kidney transplants performed was nearly equal to those on the waiting list.