So last week was National Transplant Week.
I think I can say with some certainty that this is an awareness and donor numbers-boosting thing rather than the only week in 2012 when organ transplants are done in the Britain.
Three people die every day waiting for a transplant in the UK. You can join the organ donor register here. It's really easy and will take 5 minutes. Or you could spend one second ticking a box when applying for a driving licence. One of the slogans on posters at the moment runs 'if you believe in organ donation, prove it', which is shockingly apt. (Figures from here) 96% of people when asked say that they believe organ donation is the right thing to do, and how many have joined the register? 33%.
It is important to register and to make sure that your family and friends are aware of your intentions so that they will be carried out. Relatives are statistically much more likely to agree to a donation if the potential donor was on the register.
(Infographics from the NHSBT website.)
An interesting fact from the NHSBT (NHS Blood and Transplant) website: the oldest donor and recipient of a cornea were both 104.
The NHS Organ Donor Registry, incidentally, was established in 1994, which means it's younger than me and it's done more good in that time than I'm likely to in my entire life.
I find it absolutely astonishing (not to mention disgusting) that relatives can overrule a person's stated wishes as regards their organs. I mean, whatever happened to respecting an individual's wishes and autonomy?
ReplyDeleteYou should maybe add that you can also join the organ donor register literally just by ticking a box when you apply for a driving licence. It's probably the easiest way to do it, especially for young people around beginning-driving-age.
And don't do yourself down. You're going to do plenty of good.
Completely with you on that, but I think that it may no longer be the case - on the Human Tissue Authority website it says 'if the potential donor has made it clear that they do, or do not, wish their organs or tissue to be donated, this wish must be respected and cannot be overridden after their death' and on the Q&A section of the NHSBT website it says that 'if the family, or those closest to the person who has died, object to the donation when the person who has died has given their explicit permission, either by telling relatives, close friends or clinical staff, or by carrying a donor card or registering their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register [...] it will be made clear that they do not have the legal right to veto or overrule those wishes'.
DeleteGood point - will do.
I was more trying to do it up, but thank you :)