MAKE TIME FOR A WEE CHAT ABOUT ORGAN DONATION
National tour aims to get Scotland talking
Local people are being urged to chat to loved ones about their organ donation wishes, as a national tour visits The Centre in Livingston today.
With 600 people in Scotland waiting for a life-saving transplant, the tour will highlight how saying the seven words ‘I want to be an organ donor’ could save up to seven lives.
New statistics show that over the past five years, almost two thirds (62 per cent) of organ donors in Scotland were not on the NHS Organ Donor Register at the time of their death.
The campaign aims to drive home how talking about your organ donation wishes to relatives could help those desperately waiting. Passing shoppers will be offered tea bags to encourage them to have a chat with their loved ones over a cuppa, and join the Register.
Scotland continues to lead the rest of the UK, with 41 per cent of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register, compared to 31 per cent nationally.
However with three people in the UK dying every day due to not getting the organ they need in time, joining the NHS Organ Donor Register and sharing your wishes can save and transform lives.
Professor John Forsythe, Scotland’s Lead Clinician for Organ Donation and Transplantation said:- “Organ donation means a tragedy has occurred but something positive can come out of that tragedy.
“Transplant is immensely successful. People who are very close to death can be transformed within a matter of a few weeks, and, for example one year after a liver or kidney transplant, 90 per cent of people will be alive and well.
“Therefore I would urge people to consider what they would want to do in terms of organ donation and discuss their decision and wishes with their family. That decision, and more importantly that discussion, could one day allow another person to live.”
Join the NHS Organ Donor Register at www.organdonationscotland.org.
