A HEARTBROKEN family of a teenager who died while on the transplant list have called for more people to sign up to the national organ donor register.

The sister of Jade Allistone, 15, who passed away at her family home in Hailsham during August 2014, have spoken out during National Organ Donation Week.

Jade had a heart transplant three years earlier but her body rejected the new organ and she was on the transplant waiting list.

Sister Chloe, 34, a primary school teacher, said this week is a key opportunity to promote a vital message to the public.

She said: "We all miss her every single day, she was a very special person.

"For thousands of people nationwide, a transplant is their only chance of living but there is a huge shortage of organs with three people on the transplant list dying everyday.

"By signing up, it gives hope to those who find themselves in this very difficult situation of needing a transplant.

"Perhaps there are members of the public who want to be donors but haven't got round to signing up, I would encourage everyone to do it, it only takes five minutes to sign up online and really will save lives.”

Chloe said it is really important that everyone shares their own personal wishes with their loved ones about whether they would want their organs donated if they died.

She said: "It can be a very difficult subject but again I urge everyone to have that conversation with their next of kin so their wishes can be carried out if the worse happened and they died.

"It is really important that one’s wishes are honoured if the death is sudden. Part of them can literally live on by being on the organ donor list.

"I can remember Jade talking to her teachers at Ratton School in Eastbourne about this. She always believed that raising awareness brought hope for others."

Chloe described her sister’s treatment at Great Ormond Street in London as ‘absolutely phenomenal’ and said staff catered for the whole family’s needs at what was a very sad and emotional time.

Jade was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle becomes thickened, when she was 10. Up until then she had played a lot of sport.

She was given a new heart but her body rejected it after a year. Mother Julie said her daughter received treatment but her body went into rejection again.

She went downhill and spent months at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London with other youngsters waiting for transplants before her death.

Her mother Julie said at the time that the the family was devastated and that Jade was one of a kind.

To register as a donor visit organdonation.nhs.uk