Campaigns Health

Eight

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We have a super easy one for you today – you don’t even have to get off your sofa, it will take around a minute, and it won’t cost you a single penny. But you can literally save the lives of eight people, and improve the lives of up to 120,000 more.

It takes moments to sign up to the organ donor register. 90% of us think being an organ donor is the right thing to do. But only 30% of us sign up to the organ donor register. There are nearly 6500 People currently waiting for organs. Many of  will never get one.

One of our contributers, V, wanted to share her personal experience on this:

My son was born with congenital heart defects. Thankfully for us, two rounds of surgery and years of meds was enough to “fix” him, and he is now a very happy, healthy, sporty child with no lasting issues.

Spending time on the children’s cardiac ward really opened my eyes to how many children are desperate for an organ. The staff do their best to make their lives happy, comfortable and stimulating, but no child is happy spending their life in bed.

When my son was in surgery, I got speaking to the young lady in the next bed. She was sixteen, almost seventeen,  and excitedly told me about how her birthday was coming up, and she was looking forward to getting driving lessons. She was determined to travel, see the world. She wanted to work with children in developing countries.

She was born with an enlarged heart, and, as she grew, it was causing more and more problems. By the time I met her, her heart was the site of a basketball. It had pushed her lungs out of place, causing them to protrude from her back, making it look like she had a hunch. She couldn’t sit, lie down or breathe without extreme discomfort, and was too breathless to stand. She needed a heart and lung transplant to survive. She was certain she would get one.

She never did.

A week after our conversation, that bright, articulate young woman, who was determined to help make the world a better place, had died.

She never made it to seventeen.

By signing up to the organ donor register, you can help stop not just one family going through that kind of pain, but eight. If you consent to donating your tissue or your eyes, you can improve the lives of up to 120,000 more.

You can be a hero, in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea. And you don’t even need to leave the house.

Don’t forget to tell your next of kin what you’ve done, as they can override your wishes. Maybe you’ll convince them to sign up too, and you’ll save twice as many people.

Sign up to the Organ Donor register HERE

 

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Victoria Pearson 

 

 

 

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