Today, as a local family grieves for the loss of someone who was a son, brother and husband, two people in the UK have the opportunity to benefit from the donation of his kidneys.

As they put it in a statement yesterday about the death of Keith ‘Kingpin’ Queripel, it was a fitting tribute to the little man with a big heart.

It is also a testament to the courage of the family who, faced with terrible news and difficult decisions, were able to go ahead with the donation procedures so that others might be helped by their loss.

They have decided to go public in an attempt to persuade more people to register as potential donors because of the immense good that can be done as a result of a successful transplant.

More than 10,000 people in the UK currently need a transplant. Of these, 1,000 each year – that’s three a day – will die waiting because there are not enough organs available, according to the NHS.

And although most people will say they are believers in donation, only 28% of people in Britain have joined the organ donor register.

According to Kingpin’s family, the chief reason is superstition: to sign up is in some way to invite disaster. However, as they, and other families know, tragedy strikes unexpectedly and apparently without reason.

None of us can avoid the inevitable but, given the right circumstances, the gift of life can quite literally be bequeathed to others – and that has to be the ultimate act of compassion.

The last time there was a campaign to increase the number of registered donors in Guernsey, the island lagged substantially behind the UK, which itself recognises that it can do more to encourage people to support such a worthwhile cause.

As the NHS also puts it, ‘96% of us rely on the other 4% to give blood. Please don’t leave it to someone else’.

That’s a sobering statistic and helps to highlight the 10,000 individuals who are in need of organ transplants.

Registering as potential donors is something that we should all do and follow the example of a much-loved island character.