THE miracle of life-saving organ donation has been celebrated through the unveiling of a 20ft long wall mosaic at Colchester General Hospital.

The artwork, called The Gift of Life, is designed to recognise the act of altruism and kindness and was the culmination of a project commissioned by hospital trust’s Organ Donation Committee.

Karen Mills, 31, was among the guests who attended the unveiling, having undergone a successful double lung transplant in February 2014.

The cystic fibrosis sufferer who lives in Colchester and works at the hospital as a finance assistant, urged people to join the donor register, adding: “I can’t understand why you wouldn’t – I was just sort of existing before.”

Her mum Sue Ettritch added: “I don’t think Karen would be here today, she was failing fast, she was living on hope.”

Karen was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis aged five and by the time she reached her late twenties, her health had declined to a point where she was unable to bounce back from infections.

By 2013, she needed an oxygen canister all the time and towards the end of that year, a transplant was seen as crucial to her survival. Her lungs were only working at 23 per cent of their capacity.

She did not expect to reach her 35th birthday without a lung transplant.

The call came late one night from Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, that a donation was available and she was operated on hours later. Within days the transplant made a positive impact to Karen’s health.

Karen doesn’t know much about her donor, other than she was a woman aged in her sixties who had died from a head trauma. Karen has written a letter to the woman’s family to express her gratitude.

Donor recipient Zeenat Muscat, also at the unveiling, does know her life-saver.

Her husband David gave her a kidney in 2011 and the pair, also from Colchester, are fighting fit.

Zeenat, 37, was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease called IgA nephropathy in 2006.

By 2011 Zeenat’s health had worsened and blood tests confirmed she was at stage five of kidney failure – the most severe.

Zeenat was put on dialysis at the Royal London Hospital which was keeping her alive until the transplant happened on December 5 2011.

She said: “David went in to be operated on first. They were wheeling me in and through the window I saw him being wheeled out for recovery.”

After a couple of months, the pair had recovered well and David urged people to follow his lead in becoming a donor.

He added: “It is not as bad as it sounds. I also think it should be mandatory, so you have to opt out to be a donor, rather than opt in.”

The mosaic was created by artist Anne Schwegmann-Fielding and incorporates a poem by Wivenhoe poet and musician Martin Newell.

Based on the Essex coastline with its rivers and estuaries, The Gift of Life is made from fragments from undreds of items of crockery as well as jewellery, buttons and beach glass donated by people from all over north east Essex.

Anne’s involvement in the project inspired her to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Jan Smith, chair of the Organ Donation Committee, said: “I can think of no gift greater or more humane than that of donated organs or tissue which are used to transform and, in many cases, save the lives of desperately ill people.”