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In 2008, a record number of operations were carried out at the South West Transplant Centre in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, where 75 transplants were performed - but 600 people in the region are still waiting for one.

More than 1.5 million people in the South West are on the organ donor register but campaigners want us all to sign up.

Below are the stories of five people in the South West affected by the issue.

Matthew Stevens

Film 1:

BBC Spotlight reporter Sally Mountjoy follows the story of Matthew Stevens as he undergoes a kidney transplant.

Matthew, from Cullompton, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2003. He required dialysis three times a day - but a 3am phone call was then to change his life forever.

In Sally's film, she spends a day at hospital while Matthew undergoes a transplant operation.

Emma Millar

Film 2:

BBC Spotlight reporter Johnny Rutherford meets Emma Millar who suffers from cystic fibrosis.

For almost two years, she has been an in-patient at Plymouth's Derriford Hospital, awaiting new lungs.

In 2008, she married her sweetheart, David, but she knows she may not have long to live.

Julie Saunders

Film 3:

A Devon woman who had a cornea transplant has become one of the first live donors to give one of her organs to a stranger. 

Julie Saunders, 43, from Plymouth donated a kidney to someone she'll never meet.

Only 22 so-called altruistic transplants have ever taken place, three of them at the South West Transplant Centre at Derriford Hospital.

BBC Spotlight's Health Correspondent, Sally Mountjoy, reports.

Stuart House

Film 4:

Stuart House from Millbrook in Cornwall has been given a new lease of life by his father, Alan.

Stuart developed kidney failure in his early twenties but, now thanks to his dad, is about to take part in the World Transplant Games.

BBC Spotlight's Clare Casson has been to meet him.

Paul Tregunna

Film 5:

Sixteen months after undergoing a liver transplant operation, Paul Tregunna talks about how the procedure has completety transformed his life.

The operation saved Paul's life - he had been given just weeks to live shortly before.

BBC Spotlight's Heidi Davey reports.