The Mirrorbacked campaign to motivate people to donate organs after death increased the number of organ donors up to 16million.

Last year 4,500 people died while waiting for a suitable organ to become available. Despite of such a large number of organ donors it is estimated that 1,000 people will die this year waiting for a transplant.

Statistics by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) show that on average black and Asian patients wait about three or four times longer for an organ as compared to white patients.

It also shows that organ donor register rates are, at 32% in the health regions that cover Scotland and south-west England.

NHSBT said it was looking at draft plans to try to increase the number of organ donors by a further nine million by 2013. (Harkiran Contributed to this report)