Kidney transplant patient Jane Lovell only waited six months as a 17-year-old for her operation in February 1991.
But it was a "horrible" time says the undergraduate psychiatric nurse, of Hemsby Street, Ingrow.
Jane, now 34, who was one of the faces used to promote National Transplant Week last summer, is backing a Government proposal that everyone should be on the organ donor register unless they opt out.
The British Kidney Patient Association had been campaigning for this for more than 20 years, she said.
"People fail to hold a donor card usually through apathy - they just put off signing it.
"They don't discuss their wishes with their family and when a decision has to be made it is often too traumatic and distressing for the family and they refuse," she said.
Jane revealed how the period waiting for a transplant was both physically and mentally distressing. It is not just having to cope with the dialysis but you are on lots of medication as well and I had to visit hospital in Leeds three times a week," she said.
"At one time I was on 48 tablets a day. It was terribly restrictive.
"But mentally too it was an anxious time. With hindsight, I think I was quite depressed. My mum says I was.
"I was doing my A-levels, which I failed. It had a huge impact on my career path because I wanted to be a teacher."
Jane, who stressed that a kidney transplant was not a cure and she still needed medication, received her new kidney at St James's Hospital, Leeds.
When an organ became available she was out with friends on a Saturday night.
Police had to comb the pubs and nightclubs of Keighley to find her and at 1.30am in the morning she was given a police escort to hospital. Within 12 hours of being admitted, she had the new kidney.
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