Life-Saving Mail Drop Goes To Millions Of Homes Across Midlands, UK

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 07 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PST

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A life-saving mail drop in the Midlands aims to tackle the fact that the area has the lowest proportion of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR) in the country.

From February more than 2.9 million homes in the region will receive the special leaflet inviting people to join the ODR as part of UK Transplant's My life, My gift campaign. It contains basic facts about organ donation as well as a simple Freepost form for those wanting to join the register.

Just 19% of those living in the East Midlands and 22% in the West Midlands have joined the register, which helps save and transforms thousands of lives every year. This compares to a national figure of 24% and regional highs of 29% in Scotland and the West of England.

The maildrop is targeting areas of the country with the lowest proportion of sign-ups and has already been delivered to homes in London, Northern Ireland and the North of England. This will be its final leg.

To date, more than 14.9 million people have joined the register, while last year more than 3,000 lives were saved or transformed by the gift of an organ donor including 905 people from the Midlands.

Sadly though there is a desperate shortage of donors and in the Midlands alone 1,677 people are currently registered for an organ transplant. Many are from black and Asian communities where there is an even bigger shortage of donors.

Last year 63 people in the region died before getting that second chance a transplant could have given them, while many more face an agonising wait before an organ will be found.

Fiona Wellington, UK Transplant regional manager for the Midlands, said: "There are hundreds of people in the Midlands waiting for a transplant who, like the thousands of others across the UK, are affected by the chronic shortage of organs for donation. The biggest obstacle is that four out of ten families of potential donors refuse permission for their loved ones' organs to be donated, often because they did not know what their wishes were.

"This mail drop gives people in the Midlands a real chance to make a difference. We know from research that 90% of people in the UK support organ donation, we just need more of these people to act on their good intentions, talk about their wishes with their families, and join the register. If more people did then more lives could be saved."

Tamsin May, UK Transplant Marketing and Campaigns Manager, said: "The mail drop is one of the ways in which we are trying to make the register even more accessible to those who want to pledge the gift of life.

"Our research shows that many people in the Midlands, as in the rest of the UK, support organ donation, but often expect to be asked to join the register, while others simply haven't got round to signing up yet.

"With a convenient way of registering being delivered through their letterbox, we hope that people will act on their good intentions, talk to their family about their wishes, and invite others in their household to do the same."

For people wanting to find out more about organ donation and transplantation before making their decision, the leaflet contains details of a dedicated website (http://www.mylifemygift.org) and the Organ Donor Line (0845 60 60 400) - which can also be used to join the ODR.

A photograph of the West Midlands donor co-ordinator team with local transplant recipients and a donor family, as well as other fully-captioned photos linked to the campaign including the My life, My gift logo, can be easily downloaded by visiting http://uktransplant.thirdlight.com.

Did you know?

1. The http://www.mylifemygift.org weblink contains regional information - including localised statistics and case studies relating to the Midlands - for journalists. Further case studies from the region are available for interview by contacting the UK Transplant press office.

2. 1,677 people in the Midlands currently need an organ transplant - 1,546 need a kidney transplant, 33 a liver, 33 a lung, 14 a heart and 4 a combined heart/lung.

3. The year April 06-March 07 saw 433 Midlands residents receive an organ transplant - 139 received a kidney from a deceased donor, 136 received a kidney from a living donor, 90 a liver, 20 a combined kidney/pancreas, 22 a heart and 18 a lung. A further 364 people had their sight restored by a cornea transplant.

4. Unfortunately, over the same period, 63 people died while waiting for a transplant.

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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.

11. The NHS Organ Donor Register is a confidential database operated by UK Transplant that contains the names of more than 14.9million 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.

12. 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 7,583 people are currently actively registered for a transplant, up to 2,000 others are also on the waiting list but are temporarily suspended for a variety of reasons.)

13. 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.

UK Transplant

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