Petition Calling For Changes To Organ Donation System
The girlfriend of a man who died whilst waiting for a lung transplant says the organ donation system must be changed.
The Stockton girlfriend of a man who died whilst waiting for a lung transplant says the organ donation system must be changed.
Sam Brooker’s started a petition calling for organ donor registration to be made an opt-out system, rather than the current opt-in system.
Her boyfriend Aaron Cavanagh passed away in July aged 33, after spending a year on the organ donor waiting list.
Sam said: “Somebody could have saved him, had there been enough donors.
“He got six calls. Six calls in eight months isn’t a lot when you think about the volume of people that die every single day.
“The shortage of organ donors means there’s less and less chance.”
Around 800 people attended Aaron’s funeral, and Sam says she’s more determined than ever to get more people to register to donate.
It’s as new figures from NHS Blood and Transplant found over 100 people in the North East have died during the past four years because they didn’t receive a life-saving transplant.
A third of those on the waiting list have been on it for over two years.
The NHS have released an 14 hour-long advert called the Wait, to highlight how agonising it can be waiting to hear news about possible transplants.
It features a day in the life of patient Simon Howell, who has been waiting for a new kidney for over five years.
You can sign Sam’s petition HERE. ()