Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) has launched a new Yorkshire wide ‘Be a Hero’ campaign. The campaign is to encourage more Yorkshire residents to sign the donor register.
Would you take a donated organ if you needed one? Nearly everyone would. But only around a third of us have joined the Organ Donor Register. More than 10,000 people in the UK currently need a transplant and of these, three a day will die waiting. This devastating figure could be reduced if more people signed up to the organ donor register.
The ‘Be a Hero’ campaign aims to create a unique club of Yorkshire heroes from across our region. ‘Be a Hero’ has created a new emblem highlighting that you don’t have to be a superhero to save a life. For those involved in organ donation, a hero can come in many forms. It might be the donor who saved your life. It might be the family that consented to it, the Specialist Nurse who accompanied the family of a donor through the organ donation process, or the surgeon who transplanted your new organ.
Dr Simon Flood, one of the Clinical Leads for Organ Donation at LTHT, explains: “We are proud to launch the ‘Be a Hero’ campaign and discover real life heroes across Yorkshire. Last year, just over 100 people in Yorkshire donated an organ after their death. Together these amazing individuals provided 294 lifesaving transplants. Sadly there are still nearly 800 people in Yorkshire waiting for a transplant. Just one organ donor can transform the lives of up to nine people and if more families felt sure of their loved one’s wishes to be a donor, more lives could be saved.
“I hope our ‘Be a Hero’ campaign will inspire families to have a discussion about their wishes around organ donation. It would be fantastic if the generosity of Yorkshire people meant that in Yorkshire, those who need a transplant get one in time. We could all be that hero and we could all find ourselves in the position of needing a hero!”
The campaign hopes to gain support from a range of high profile regional and national personalities who will share stories of their everyday heroes. Real life stories from the people who’ve experienced organ donation issues first hand will be integral to the campaign.
The Leeds Transplant Centre at LTHT has been providing complex specialist organ transplantation services for the Yorkshire and Humber region for over 25 years. It is the third largest liver transplant unit in the UK, a leading centre for ‘live related’ transplants and a regional centre for renal transplants.
You can find out more about organ donation and join the NHS Organ Donor Register at www.leedsth.nhs.uk/be-a-hero or by calling 0300 123 23 23 – please remember to reference the Yorkshire ‘Be A Hero’ campaign.
