I have name changed for this.
About 30 years ago my father had a heart transplant, he had three children at the time and worked as a policeman, just your average bobby on the beat.
At the time of his transplant he wasn't in hospital and reasonably healthy looking but had been given less than 3 months to live due to various complications. Now before anyone asks, my father was a very fit man, eat healthily and exercised daily, this was purely genetics. His children were 7, 11 and 17 and he himself was in his early 40s.
I cannot express to you just how wonderful it was to have a father growing up thanks to the actions of two other parents giving their consent for their daughter heart to be donated to my father. This poor girl had been involved in a car accident at 23 and her parents were proactive in asking about transplants as she'd once mentioned to them that she thought it was a good idea - although she'd never carried a donor card.
They never wanted to meet my father but did want to receive a letter from him, which he wrote about 5 weeks after the operation. He included his own address and asked them to keep in contact, which they did. This letter writing became a yearly ritual for my father who would write page after page of updates about our family for them, and ever year he would offer again to meet them, and each year they would politely turn him down.
After 11 years had passed they finally changed their mind and a very timid father set off to meet the people he would soon consider his step parents. They were delighted to hear that their daughters sacrifice had managed to help keep a family together as theirs was torn apart, to actually meet the person who they'd helped save.
Their daughters heart was such a good match for my father that was taken off anti-rejection drugs less than 6 months after the operation and has never needed them since. He'll be 73 later this year, is still happily in love with my mother, has 3 children, 11 grand children and 1 great grand child.
I'm just asking people to consider whether they would prefer their organs to rot, or potentially save someone like their father or mother. When you die, you don't need those organs but someone else will. This is the most personal and important decision you will ever make, so regardless of what you decide, make sure you are comfortable with it and your family know about it.