Organ Donation Week

 Now is the time to step up and register as an organ donor.  Do something worthwhile today.

Organ Donation Week is an annual campaign held in September (https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/) that aims to encourage people to join the organ donor register and to share their decision with their families.
Right now across the UK, there are around 6,500 people in need of an organ transplant, including around 150 children and teenagers. On average three people die every day in need of an organ transplant because there just aren’t enough organ donors.

More people are needed to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register now at www.organdonation.nhs.uk. It only takes a few minutes to register and please remember to tell your family that you want them to support your decision to donate and save lives. Ask them whether they want to be donors too. #YesIDonate

British Liver Trust supports Organ Donation Week every year on social media and through our supporter newsletters and other communications.
Being able to donate organs to help people who desperately need transplants is one of the great miracles of modern medicine. This generosity was life changing for 431 people in Scotland last year and 45% of us have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register.
But it’s still not enough. People are still dying while waiting for a transplant. Right at this moment in Scotland, around 580 people with life-threatening illnesses are on the Transplant Waiting List.  Visit: https://www.organdonationscotland.org/ 
On 1 December 2015 Wales became the first country in the UK to introduce a soft opt-out system for organ donation.There is a shortage of organs for transplants in Wales and across the UK. 9 out of 10 people in Wales agree with organ donation, but only 3 out of 10 people have signed the NHS Organ Donor Register. In Wales the way people choose to be organ donors has changed and under the new soft 'opt-out’ system people living in Wales will have three choices:

  • Register a decision to become a donor (opt-in) or
  • Do nothing – which will mean that they have no objection to being a donor or
  • Register a decision not to be a donor (opt-out)

For more information please visit: www.organdonationwales.org

 Read the stories of some who have undergone a liver transplant.