Be A Superhero - Save A Life, UK

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 21 Sep 2007 - 16:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Students arriving at university for the first time this term are being given the chance to be a superhero and help save a life.

UK Transplant's Superhero roadshow is visiting freshers' fairs at 14 universities. Students will have the opportunity to show their support for organ donation by heroically signing up to help save a life after their death by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR).

The comic book themed roadshow aims to build on the success of last year's events when more than 4,000 first-year students joined the register.

This year the roadshow team hopes to encourage even more students to sign up to the ODR as they explain how donating organs can save and transform people's lives. Last year 3,087 people received the gift of life through organ donation, while another 2,402 had their sight restored through a cornea transplant.

Matthew Dodd, 18, a fresher at Liverpool John Moores University received his life-saving liver transplant in 1995. Matthew was born with an unknown liver condition which was irreversibly damaging his liver. He was placed on the transplant waiting list in December 1994 and received his transplant five months later. Now he is about to start his four year medicinal chemistry degree.

"I don't actually remember much about the operation as I was only five at the time, but I know I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the generosity of my donor and their family to whom I am extremely grateful," said Matthew who represented Great Britain in swimming at the World Transplant Games in Thailand in August. "I would ask everyone to think about becoming an organ donor to help someone else to live after their death and to talk about their wishes with their families. More donors are desperately needed and I know that not everyone is as lucky as I was."

Matthew knows this because his sister Rebecca died aged just nine years old while waiting for a liver transplant. She was born with the same condition as her brother and was placed on the transplant list in October 2001. But her condition deteriorated and she died in March 2002 still waiting for a suitable organ to become available.

Today there are 7,406 people registered for an organ transplant, including 167 aged under 18. And despite the thousands of life saving operations that take place every year, the number waiting continues to rise.

Almost 1,800 of those on the transplant list are black or Asian and yet people from these communities account for fewer than 2% of deceased donors. So as part of UK Transplant's ongoing Can we count on you? campaign, the roadshows will be aiming to encourage more black and Asian students to join the register.

The UK Transplant stand will also include full-size, cut-out superheroes, meaning visitors can transform from their mild-mannered student persona into a caped crusader, while learning that it does not take an extraordinary feat to one day save a life.

"Students don't have to be able to run faster than a speeding bullet or have X-ray vision to be a superhero and help save lives. Instead it takes another kind of superpower, but one that we all have within us - the generosity of spirit to think now about helping others to live on after our deaths," said UK Transplant marketing and campaigns manager Angie Burton.

"And it does not take much to demonstrate this power; all we are asking is for students to join the millions of other superheroes who have already signed up to the Organ Donor Register and to discuss their wishes with their families. More than 7,000 people in the UK are waiting for an organ transplant and the sad fact is that 400 of them will die during these students' first year at university due to a lack of donors.

"This is the fifth year we have visited freshers' fairs and we are hoping record numbers will sign up to save a life. Young people are great supporters of organ donation; 30% of people on the register were aged between 16 and 25 when they signed up. We hope our stand will encourage even more of them to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register and give the gift of life."

The UK Transplant team will visit the following universities:

- University of Leeds: Monday 17 September
- Liverpool John Moores University: Tuesday 18 September
- Manchester Metropolitan University: Wednesday 19 September
- University of Westminster: Friday 21 September
- Nottingham University: Monday 24 September
- Cardiff University: Tuesday 25 September
- Swansea University: Wednesday 26 September
- University of the West of England, Bristol: Thursday 27 September
- Hertfordshire University, Hatfield: Friday 28 September
- Exeter University: Sunday 30 September
- Newcastle University: Monday 1 October
- Portsmouth University: Wednesday 3 October
- Southampton University: Friday 5 October
- Essex University, Colchester: Saturday 6 October

* To find out more about organ donation and to join the NHS Organ Donor Register please call the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400 or visit http://www.uktransplant.org.uk.

Did you know?

1. You are more likely to need a transplant than become a donor.

2. 30% of the people on the NHS Organ Donor Register are aged between 16 and 25 when they join.

3. All the major religions support organ donation and many actively promote it.

4. Repeated surveys show that the majority of the public support organ donation.

5. A donor can donate a heart, lungs, two kidneys, pancreas, liver and can restore the sight of two people by donating their corneas.

6. Donors can also give bone and tissue such as skin, heart valves and tendons. Skin grafts have helped people with severe burns and bone is used in orthopaedic surgery.

7. Black people are three times as likely as the general population to develop kidney failure, which can lead to the need for a transplant.

8. The need for organs in the Asian community is three to four times higher than that of the white community because conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, that can result in organ failure, occur more often in the Asian population.

9. Most organ donations come from people who have died while on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit. Organs, particularly heart and lungs, deteriorate very quickly without an oxygen supply and the ventilator is able to keep blood and oxygen circulating after death.

10. Traditionally organ donors have come from two groups: road accident and brain haemorrhage patients. Improved road safety and medical intervention mean that fewer people in both groups are dying.

11. Transplanting a kidney patient costs around £26,000 in the first year for surgery and drugs and £7,500 a year thereafter - £56,000 over five years. A patient remaining on dialysis would cost between £98,000 and £148,000 over the same period.

12. The number of living kidney donations has more than trebled since 1995 and now account for one in three of all kidney transplants.

13. The NHS Organ Donor Register is a confidential database operated by UK Transplant that contains the names of more than 14.6 million individuals who wish to pass on the gift of life through organ donation after their death. This figure represents approximately 24% of the total UK population. The register can be accessed by authorised medical staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to establish an individual's wishes for donation.

14. The Human Tissue Act 2004 makes clear that the wishes of the deceased must be put first and where an individual has expressed a wish to donate by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register, carrying a donor card or verbally or in writing to a friend or family member, NHS staff will do all they can to ensure those wishes are fulfilled.

15. More than 9,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant to save or dramatically improve their lives but the shortage of donors means that just 3,000 transplants can be performed each year. More than 400 patients die each year while waiting. (Although 7,406 people are currently actively registered for a transplant, up to 2,000 others are also on the waiting list but are suspended for a variety of reasons.

16. UK Transplant is the NHS organisation responsible for matching and allocating donated organs. It is part of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), a Special Health Authority within the NHS that manages the National Blood Service, Bio Products Laboratory, and UK Transplant.

http://www.uktransplant.org.uk