Tell them our stories - Ann Lingard

Ann Lingard has explored and written fictional accounts of some of the people whose tissues and organs came to be publicly exhibited in the Surgeons' Hall Museum, Edinburgh.

Read more in Ann's creative writing section >>

As a contrast to the fiction stories of past 'donors' Ann felt it was important to find out more about the way in which we now treat donation and collection of organs and tissues, for both teaching and transplant purposes. With the help of Steve Sturdy and other colleagues at the Genomics Forum she issued a 'call for stories' to transplant and biobank organisations, and to a variety of other contacts.

Ann extends her deep gratitude to the donors and the organ 'retrievers' who responded, and met and talked to her - and who subsequently entrusted her to write their stories.

• The eye collector's story (PDF, 71 kB)
• "The eye-donor: a parent's story" (PDF, 197 kB)
• The brain-donor's story (PDF, 19 kB)
• The body-donor's story (PDF, 24 kB)
• The bone-collector's story (PDF,57 kB)