DAN Theobald was a much-loved husband and father, a well-respected carpenter and popular member of his community.
When he died suddenly last summer, at the age of 42, his family and many friends were devastated.
But Dan continued to touch people’s lives after his own death – giving three strangers a new chance of life by donating his kidneys and liver.
To honour his donation, Dan’s family have been presented with an Order of St John UK Award for Organ Donation, which his nine-year-old daughter collected at a ceremony in April.
Dan grew up in the Downend area and went to Oldbury Court Primary School – now Frome Vale Academy – before attending Downend School.
He continued to live and work in the area as his kitchen and carpentry business grew by word of mouth, with most of his customers in the local community.
Dan collapsed suddenly while at home in Downend with wife Gemma, daughter Thalia and five-year-old son Tate last July, after suffering a cardiac arrest
Gemma said: “It should have been an ordinary Wednesday afternoon.
“Dan had just picked my daughter up from school and I was cooking the dinner. He went upstairs, saying ‘when I come back down I’ll cook the kids pancakes for dessert’ but unfortunately not long afterwards, we heard him collapse on the bathroom floor.
“What followed was an incredibly traumatic experience.”
Gemma called 999 and said the emergency services’ response was “amazing”.
She said the house was soon full of firefighters and paramedics, who restarted Dan’s heart after 20 minutes and took him to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he stayed in intensive care for six days on life support.
Gemma said: “Unfortunately, we had the heart-breaking news that there was too much damage to his brain and there was nothing else they could do.”
After a post-mortem examination couldn’t establish why he had died, Dan’s heart was sent to London for further tests. They established his death had been caused by Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, a condition where an abnormal heart rhythm causes the heart to stop.
Gemma said hearing the news felt “completely surreal”, and Dan’s death left everyone who knew him in shock.
Because Dan had been young, fit and healthy, hospital staff asked Gemma about the possibility of donating some of his organs for transplant.
The NHS in England has an ‘opt out’ system of organ donation, which means all adults are considered to have agreed to be an organ donor when they die, unless they have recorded a decision not to donate.
However, families are always involved in making decisions before donations take place, so medics can establish whether someone had expressed a wish to be a donor or not.
Gemma said: “We hadn’t really discussed it in much detail.
“I thought, if I was sitting with Dan chatting with me now, what would he say?
“I just knew he would have said ‘absolutely, I don’t need them any more’ – he would definitely have wanted to help others.”
Later Gemma received a “really lovely letter” from NHS Blood and Transplant, telling her that a woman in her 50s had received one of Dan’s kidneys, after being on a donor waiting list for at least a year and a woman in her 40s had received his other kidney after being on a waiting list for four years.
He had also saved the life of a man in his 60s, who had received Dan’s liver weeks after being put on the transplant waiting list.
In April Gemma, her daughter and close family friends Alice and Ashley Burdock attended a ceremony at Kings Weston House in Bristol, where the Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol, Peaches Golding, presented the Order of St John UK Award for Organ Donation to Thalia.
Gemma said: “It was a really special afternoon, and we got to speak to the organ donation nurses – it was very emotional, but very uplifting and positive.
“It was a proud moment having Thalia with me, and that she was able to come up and collect the award.
“I want my children to know that their dad was a hero and saved somebody’s life – it’s a lovely way for them to remember him.”
Gemma said that since Dan’s death her children’s schools and Downend School, where she works, had all given the family “amazing” support, as had relatives, friends, neighbours and the local community as a whole.
She said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by their kindness, which is a real credit to Dan and all the people he has touched with his kind and caring nature.
“He was really loved and I’ve felt that love from people – how well thought of he was, how much support we’ve been getting.
“Dan was a chatty, caring and kind man who was everyone’s friend. I can now proudly tell my children that their daddy is also a superhero, who saved someone’s life.”