A slaughterman shot dead with a bolt gun during a mass cull of livestock has helped four other people to live.

Relatives of Steven Smart have given permission for his lungs, heart, liver and kidneys to be used for transplant.

The family was initially told his organs would be little use because of his rare blood group, AB negative.

But his mother Joan Smart, of Hurst Green, near Robertsbridge, said four people desperate for the organs soon came forward including a 27-year-old man in need of a kidney.

Mrs Smart, 46, said: "It would have been what he would have wanted. He was such a caring person, he was always helping people.

"Whether it be a neighbour's fence that had blown down or something else that needed doing he was always there. He would not have given a second thought to donating his organs."

Mr Smart died on April 5, a day after being shot in the head with a bolt gun while helping with the mass cull of animals due to the foot-and-mouth scare.

He had been earning £150 a day working 12-hour shifts at a former airfield at Great Orton, Cumbria.

Mr Smart, who grew up in Hurst Green, took the job shortly after being laid off by Invicta Meat slaughterhouse in Lamberhurst, Kent, where he had worked for eight years.

He was saving up for his wedding to fiance Carina Weston, 31, who he lived with in Bexhill Road, St Leonards.

Mrs Smart said the family has been deluged with more than 100 letters of condolence.

She said: "They have come from neighbours, friends and even people I have never even spoken to before."

John Evans, chairman of the Organ Donor Society, said: "In this particular case it seems as if the recipients are extremely lucky, especially as the blood group was so rare."

The date of a funeral service for Mr Smart has yet to be fixed.

Slaughterman Keith Hubbard, 37, of Atherstone, Warwickshire, has been charged with murder.