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Phil Brennan has had his life saved by total strangers - twice. On both occasions, Phil, from Salford, had just hours to live when he received a liver transplant.

In the first case, he knows the donor was 35 and died in a motorbike crash. He also knows that without the generosity of both his donors and their families, he wouldn't be alive today.

However, the system of organ donation could be about to change radically. If new government proposals are introduced, people would have to opt out if they do NOT want their organs used after their death.

Backed by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it's believed the opt-out plan would double the number of organs available for transplant.

This is Phil’s story:

Phil Brennan was dying of liver disease caused by cancer. In his words, he had celebrated his last Christmas. His hopes rested with the transplant list.

Then on Jan 4th 2006, the call he’d been waiting for came. An organ had been found. The next day, he was rushed into hospital and received the transplant he so desperately needed.

“I was told I had about 72 hours of life left. The doctor told me: you probably won’t see Saturday. That really hurt me,” he said.

“I knew I was one of the luckiest people on earth to have received a transplant. But the chances of me receiving a second one to save my life and my family were so remote, I didn’t even dare try to calculate the odds.”

A second chance

But against all odds, another matching liver became available and Phil Brennan was given the second chance he didn’t dare dream of.

So does Phil support the government's opt-out plan for organ donation?

“I think it would be very beneficial," he said. "But there’s a huge stigma people have got to get over. Doctors aren’t hovering over a dying person. It’s a decision that’s taken by the donor or the donor’s relatives. Nothing is taken for granted.”

A year after his operation and Phil was back with his family leading a normal life. He had this message for the donors and their families that saved his life:

I would say they’re extremely generous and humanitarian. To be able to give the gift of life is the greatest gift of all. And they saved my life even though they were grieving for their own loss.”