A record number of organ transplants were carried out in the UK last year, figures have shown.
There were 3,706 transplants in the 12 months to the end of March 2010, up 5% on the previous year.
Fuelling the rise was a 7% increase in the number of dead organ donors to 959.
Of those who died, most (97%) gave a kidney and, of these, the majority (77%) also donated at least one other organ.
There was also a 10% increase in the number of living donors to 1,061, according to the report from NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).
More than half of the total number of organ donors were healthy people donating either a kidney or part of their liver.
More than one in three of all kidney transplants now comes from a living donor.
The report said: "All of these changes may have an adverse impact on the quality of the organs and the subsequent transplant outcome for the recipient."
Sally Johnson, director of organ donation and transplantation at NHSBT, said she was delighted that more lives could be saved thanks to the rising number of transplants.
"We have made huge improvements to the way we work in hospitals and in promoting the overwhelming need for organs and I am glad these changes are reaping real rewards with so many lives saved," she said.
