On Friday our founders Nick and Donna Hodges had the honour of joining His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester as he unveiled a new memorial stone at London’s Museum of the Order of St John, to celebrate 10 years of the Order of St John Award.
They had the privilege of being at the very first awards ceremony at St James Palace 10 years ago where they accepted the award on behalf of their son Bodie who saved and improved the lives of four other children through organ donation.
Since the inaugural ceremony, over 10,000 awards have been given to these heroes who between them have either saved or improved the lives of over 25000 people in the UK.
“This Organ Donation Week, I would ask that you ‘Start the conversation’ about Organ Donation at home with your family where you share your wishes. It really could be a life saving or life changing conversation”
Nick Hodges
There are approximately 30,000 members of the Order worldwide. The award has various membership grades awarded in recognition of service to humanity following in the tradition of the original Knights of St John.
“As a bereaved parent of such a young child, you miss so many things that are taken for granted. A first conversation, birthdays, Christmas , first day at school and that opportunity to see them achieve things.
We have missed all of these and will never get them back with Bodie but being able to represent him at such a prestigious event fills us with such pride and a lot of emotion”
Nick and Donna Hodges
To find out more about our Organ Donation work please click here
