KIDNEY transplant hopeful Melanie Wellbelove has welcomed a new law which means her and others are more likely to get a new organ that will save their lives.

Mum-of-two Melanie, 48, from Devizes has been finding life under coronavirus lockdown incredibly hard but the announcement by the Government that a law that means people have to opt out rather than in to being donors has lifted her spirits.

She said: “Kiera and Max’s law means than more people like me and others waiting for life saving organs can have a chance of getting their lives back.

“I’m very hopeful that when the programme is allowed to reopen and they start up the transplant list again that more people will get the organs that we so desperately need.

“Without a new kidney I will been on dialysis until I die. My life expectancy without my new kidney is much shortened.

“I think the change in the law will really highlight the need for organs and also encourage families to talk to their loved ones about their wishes during what is often a very difficult time.

“Some people will choose to opt out and I understand completely that it’s a personal choice. I really hope that they realise that they are doing just about the best thing you can do for someone... and that it save a life. Possibly my life.”

Melanie, who until she was forced into self-isolation as a very vulnerable person, was still working as a manager at Route2Fitness gym in Devizes, was becoming more and more depressed.

Before the virus struck she was hopeful that she would get a new kidney under the paired pool programme after her sister Helen Hopgood offered to donate a kidney to the scheme.