ORGAN transplant recipients will help to mark the birthday celebrations of a hospital's transplant programme this weekend.

A children's party and dinner dance are being organised to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the transplant programme at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, on Saturday.

And former patients will launch hundreds of balloons in Newcastle's Times Square.

The celebrations have been organised by the Freeman Heart and Lung Transplant Association, a patients organisation set up to support families receiving transplants and to raise awareness of organ donation.

Since the heart transplant programme was founded in 1985, there have been 733 heart and 544 lung transplants.