Help save a life

Every year thousands of lives are saved/transformed through the gift of a transplant but there remains a critical shortage of donor organs.

Last year 3,709 transplants were performed in the UK thanks to the generosity of 2,021 donors. This meant 978 lives were saved through heart, lung, liver and small bowel transplants, and a further 2,703 lives were dramatically improved through kidney and pancreas transplants. In addition to this 3,099 grateful recipients had their sight restored through the gift of a corneal transplant.

There are still approximatly 10,000 people waiting for a life saving transplant  and sadly 1,000 of those people will die every year whilst waiting – that's three people every day – because there are not enough organs available.

After reviewing the process of organ donation, the government published a report In January 2008 with recomendations which will hopefully address the issue of the shortage of donor organs and increase the number of organs available for transplant by 50%.

At Airedale, we are implementing some of those recomendations on a local level to try and improve donation rates and help those people waiting for a transplant.  We recognise and accept that organ donation may not be the wish of every family but ultimatly we want to ensure that the option of organ donation becomes part of all end of life care discussions where appropriate and every family is given that opportunity and patients wishes respected.

We also would like to raise awareness of organ donation, not only within the trust but also in the community it serves, and encourage people to sign up to the organ donor register .

There are currantly 17,786,701 people who have pledged to help others after their death by registering thier wishes on the national organ donor register. That's 28% of the population. Yet in surveys, over 90% of the population, in principle, say they have no objection to donation.

We want to get the message out that Its really important that everyone takes some time to think about this and discuss thier wishes with their loved ones and if they would like to help others after their death, to join the organ donor register.

Think – “Would you take an organ if you needed one”

Facts

• 94 per cent of people say they would accept an organ if their life was at risk
• 87 per cent say they would donate after death
• Only 28 per cent of the population are on the organ donation register
• More than 10,000 people are awaiting transplantation at any one time
• Three of these people sadly die each day.

In the last two years at Airedale, 43% of all families approached consented to donation and six life saving transplants were performed as a result. We now aim to also look at the potential of tissue donation (e.g corneas, skin, heart valves) within the trust and offering those patients/families the opportunity to donate if they wish to.       

Quick links