God forbid anyone you know or love should ever need a heart transplant – or any other kind of transplant, for that matter. But if they did, you’d hope an organ would be available for them. Well my astonishing fact of the day is that there are 8,000 people in the UK currently on the waiting list for a transplant. Worse still, three people in this country die every day because a suitable organ isn’t available for them – which isn’t surprising, since only 28 percent of us are currently on the NHS organ donor list. The consequences of that very fact just don’t bear thinking about.
But do think about it. Especially this week, which is National Transplant Week. And because it’s National Transplant Week, you may come across a few transplant-related stories, such as today’s – which reveals the results of a survey carried out by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the UK organ donation outfit.
In a nutshell, the survey states that 55 percent of Londoners have never mentioned organ donation to their friends and family. Why? Well 24 percent just don’t want to think about it – which, I guess, is understandable – but then 29 percent don’t discuss it because they don’t think it’s a priority. Well no, not until it’s too late it isn’t.
Now I get that most of us just don’t want to think about dying, or the fact that the people we love will die some day too. But if you desperately needed a new heart/liver/kidney/cornea/whatever, I’m pretty sure it’s all you would be able to think about. So talk about it, then take action – register at organdonation.nhs.uk.
I carry an ancient organ donor card, so I’m going to register right now. And no, I don’t want to think of a world without me in it, but if someone else can benefit from my death then I’m certainly not going to deny them that opportunity.