COLOURFUL, permanent memorials to patients and their families who have given others the chance of life and sight through posthumous organ and tissue donation are being unveiled in Gwent hospitals.

Works by artists Valerie Harding and Elizabeth Downing, with the help of staff from Aneurin Bevan Health Board, patients, relatives, and students from Coleg Gwent, have been installed at the Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall hospitals.

The former’s newly unveiled memorial – in the Beechwood cafe, on Level One – comprises a Tree of Life decorated with brightly coloured, handmade glass leaves.

The Nevill Hall memorial, to be unveiled on Friday, is located in the main outpatients’ department, and features individual glass buttlerflies suspended along the windows.

Pieces for both works were designed and decorated at a series of workshops held at the Royal Gwent, St Woolos, and Nevill Hall hospitals, where families, staff, patients and members of the public were invited to participate.

Art and design students from Coleg Gwent’s Newport and Ebbw Vale campuses, and Brynmawr Foundation School, also created designs showing what organ donation and transplantation meant to them.

Patients undergoing dialysis treatment for kidney failure also contributed to the project with the help of friends and relatives.

The Gift of Life Commemorative Artworks were commissioned by NHS Blood and Transplant in partnership with Gwent Arts in Health (GARTH) and supported by Aneurin Bevan Health Board.

The Tree of Life at the Royal Gwent Hospital was unveiled by players from Newport County and Newport Gwent Dragons.

Organ donation is and will remain a high profile issue in the coming years as Wales begins a switch to a new opt-out system.