Our wonderful son David was taken from us.

He had led a full life, always full of mischief and activity­­ - until nine years earlier, when an investigation into what David described as 'funny turns' revealed that he had a large brain tumour.

On his 16th birthday, instead of celebrating a milestone birthday with gusto, David spent over eight hours in the operating theatre. When a clearly exhausted doctor emerged, he told us he had removed all of the tumour, but he had to sever a major artery. David would be hemiplegic, paralysed on the right side, for the rest of his life.

Over the next nine years, despite undergoing brain surgery more than 25 times, he accepted his bad luck with astounding resilience­ - determined to enjoy life, whatever the handicap. Sheltered workshops were not for him. He wanted a real job.

Soon he had his own car and was learning AutoCad drafting on the computer. He landed a job in a drafting office and continued his studies. Periodic bouts of pressure of the brain, caused by a blocked shunt, sent him back to hospital many times. One day he simply didn't come home. He emerged brain dead from yet another operation.

That day we met a Donor Coordinator, who by coincidence had once met David at a family wedding. She gave us the options. We never had any doubt that David would have wanted to give that gift of life. His body, for which he had no further use, gave life to five other people in desperate need of healthy organs.

A week after David passed away, his Advanced Certificate in Civil Drafting arrived in the post.

Denice and John