Jo-Anne Dobson, whose son Mark underwent a successful kidney transplant early this year, is now intent on encouraging others to add their name to the Organ Donor Register.
And, brave Mark (15), a pupil at New Bridge Integrated College is keen to use his experience as a donor recipient to encourage more people to 'sign up'.
"It is great that last year 16 million people joined the register and more than 3,500 organ transplants were carried out across the UK," said Jo-Anne, "but people need to see at first hand how becoming a donor really does save and change lives."
With this in mind, mother and son are both volunteering with the N.I. Kidney Patients' Association and helping promote the forthcoming National Transplant Week in July.
Jo-Anne, who works as assistant campaign manager for MEP Jim Nicholson, as well as press officer for the Ulster Unionist Party in Upper Bann, has encouraged the party to become the first to officially endorse the campaign. And she has secured the backing of party leaders who are currently in the process of writing to members, asking them to consider registering with the organ donor scheme.
"When your own child has had his life turned around by a strangers's act of selfless kindness - and at a time when they are coping with their own grief - you really just want to give back as much as you can," said Jo-Anne.
"I want people to know that the death of a loved one is never in vain when part of that person lives on in someone else. Something positive comes out of a personal tragedy and that, in turn, I think helps those going through bereavement cope that bit better.
"My gratitude towards the family who donated the kidney to Mark knows no bounds and I and my husband John will be writing to the family via the transplant co-ordinator to let them know how sincerely thankful we are."
Mark, born with severe reflux of the kidneys, had been in renal failure for the last three years and was preparing for home dialysis six days a week when the call his mum had been waiting for eventually came through.
"When kidney function is reduced to below 15 per cent, you are put on a transplant list and when this falls to 10 per cent, it has to be dialysis," explained Jo-Anne. "We were just at the stage of preparing for this when the call came through at 1am on February 4 to say a kidney match had been found for Mark.
"It is the call you always wait for but at the back of your mind believe you will never get. I remember feeling really really happy - euphoric even - and this was immediately followed by a feeling of intense sadness because I knew someone had had to die for Mark to be given this chance."
However, despite the lifeline dangled in front of her son, there were more nail-biting moments to come as the kidney's journey to Belfast was delayed for several hours due to severe snowfall in England.
"As luck would have it, we became snowbound too, on our way to Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, so for a while it was 'touch and go' whether or not the operation would proceed at all," said Jo-Anne, who was three-quarters way through the live donor scheme to donate one of her own kidneys when the donor organ became available.
Yet, almost 24 hours later, following yet more blood tests, scans and x-rays in six hours of exhuastive cross-matching, Mark's five-and-a-half hour operation went ahead - while his mother and father spent the longest night of their lives pacing the hospital's corridors, drinking tasteless coffee, crying and praying. Very hard.
Thankfully, the operation was a success, but like many transplant patients, Mark has had a few post-operative setbacks. These have included the need for corrective surgery on a narrow artery to the new kidney and a spell in hospital to recover from a mild virus which required unusually close inspection because of Mark's reduced immunity due to the cocktail of immuno-suppressant drugs which has now become a necessary daily ritual.
"Mark has to take 12 tablets in the morning and 10 at night, but he has been very good about it," added Jo-Anne. "When set against his new lease of life, the need for so much medication is a minor thing to put up with.
"My son is barely recognisable now - he has so much more energy and the colour is definitely back in his cheeks. Now he can do things like ride his bike and play football with his friends - things like other young people his age take for granted.
"And, as an extra bonus, we can go on holiday outside the UK, as for the 11 months Mark was on the donor waiting list, we didn't dare. Once you are outside the UK, you are officially off the list should a donor organ become available.
"I know Mark is one of the lucky ones and that is why I appeal to everyone to consider registering with the donor scheme. When you have a very up-close and personal encounter with how it works, you can't help but go on the campaign trail."
A total of 62 Northern Ireland residents received transplants last year, but some 256 people here are still waiting for an organ transplant and last year 13 died while waiting. There are currently 446,322 people in Northern Ireland registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register which equates to a little over 25 per cent of the population.