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It’s rare to watch the goings-on in Westminster and be overcome with a deep sense of pride. But that’s exactly what happened today.

For three hours we listened to heart-rending stories about organ donation , saw total unity among all parties in their will to save lives and heard this newspaper praised to the rafters for its tireless campaign on the issue. Even by Tories .

As someone who gave a kidney to his son and who has worked at the Mirror for almost a quarter of a century, wit­­nessing the game-changing Max’s Law sail one step closer to reality was as inspirational as it was moving.

Nothing summed up the intense emotion of the debate more than Max Johnson’s mum, Emma, fleeing in tears from her seat when she heard Peter Heaton-Jones tell of the crash in his Devon constituency which claimed the life of nine-year-old Keira Ball whose heart now beats in her son’s body.

The Tory MP said: “I am thinking of Max and Keira because it is their Bill. Keira’s story and Max’s story demonstrate that more organs mean more saved lives.

"That is the best argument for seeing this Bill reach the statute books.”

(Image: Parliament tv) (Image: Parliament tv)

Every one of the dozens of MPs who spoke, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn , vowed to back the Bill.

And every one of them warmly con­­gratulated its sponsor, Geoffrey Robinson , who has fought tenaciously for years to change the law on organ donation in England to ensure people have to opt out of, rather than in to, giving the gift of life.

He spoke passionately for half an hour, opening with a decent gag.

Three former PMs supported his Bill, he said, the exception being John Major “because he didn’t know enough about it.

"Which was sometimes his problem as Prime Minister”.

(Image: Parliament tv)

The Labour veteran had a serious message to get across to the 60 or so MPs present and he described how unacceptable the current system has become.

He said: “We have some of the lowest rates of consent for donation in Western Europe, effectively preventing one third of available organs from being used.

"On the present waiting list of 6,500, some 500 are, in effect, on a life sen­­tence and will, without an organ be­­­coming available, die in the next year.

“I believe this House would agree that that just simply isn’t good enough. I believe we can do better.”

At the end of his opening speech, Mr Corbyn left the front bench to pat his shoulder and congratulate him.

He said: “It’s wonderful he’s got this Bill introduced and I hope today the House can pass it and thus save an awful lot of people’s lives.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Watching intently in the gallery was Kaylee-Ann Davidson-Olley who made his­­tory at just five months old when she became the youngest patient to receive a donor heart.

She’d travelled from her County Durham home with sister Rebecca to witness the historic event.

She said: “I was in tears because it has been such a long time. I know this will make such a difference.”

Alongside them was Patricia Car­­roll, 65, of Thurrock, Essex, who brought tears to the eyes of many MPs when she spoke about daughter Nat­­alie at our Change the Law for Life campaign event at last year’s Labour conference.

Natalie died in 2014 awaiting a new pancreas and kidney after her organs were damaged by diabetes. The 38-year-old was able to donate her heart valves, which saved an eight-month-old girl.

(Image: Trinity Mirror)

And last year Patricia, a tireless campaigner on organ donation, gave a kidney to a man being treated in the same unit that had cared for her daughter.

Time and again speakers referred to the 500 people who die every year on the transplant waiting list, re-focussing minds on what the day was all about. And the magnitude of the service they were performing by voting through the Bill.

No-one talks on this issue with greater depth than those who see first-hand the heartbreaking agony of a loved-one waiting for a transplant.

Which is why when Sunderland MP Julie Elliott spoke about her daughter Rebecca, who needs eight hours of dialysis every night, members on both sides choked back emotion.

She said: “As a mother, my instinct is always to make things better for my children. To me she’s always going to be the baby that I gave birth to 36 years ago. You love that child unconditionally and that never changes.

“It’s a terrible situation to be in where you can’t fix something that’s gone terribly wrong. The impact on our family has been huge.”

Five family members offered kid­­neys to Rebecca but none was a match. That is the terrible reality the families of the 6,500 people currently waiting for an organ face.

Plus the knowledge that three of them will die each day.

My son Phil and I were lucky. Despite being different blood groups we were a good match which meant four years ago I could give him one of my kidneys. He’s doing fine now. A changed man.

At one point it looked like legendary filibustering, anti-PC Tory Philip Davies was going to talk out the day on the grounds that the State should not be allowed consent over human bodies. The dozens of papers he shuffled looked ominously like a six-hour speech de­­­signed to kill the Bill.

But he said that despite his misgivings “I have no intention of blocking this Bill”.

That was the moment you sensed the day was won. That it would be nodded through unanimously without need for a count.

(Image: Mirror)

Which, after two hours and 51 minutes talking, it was.

But not before Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price, wrapping up the debate, announced that when it goes on to the statute books after further scrutiny at the committee stage, it will be known as Max’s Law.

And not before that Tory minister lavished praise on this paper for its relentless campaigning to achieve that law.

She said: “We rarely talk about national newspapers in a complimentary way but The Mirror has shown what the Press can achieve when it puts its mind to it.”

There were no nays. The ayes had it.