New Campaign To Get People Discussing Organ Donation
800 people are currently on the waiting list for an organ in Yorkshire.
A Hull man who received a life-saving kidney transplant is backing a new drive to get more people in our region talking about organ donation.
Mike May, who's 46, was diagnosed with kidney failure back in 2010 and waited four years for a transplant.
He's asking people to get behind a new NHS campaign to raise awareness of the number of the hundreds of people who're currently in need of a transplant in our region.
Latest figures show 800 people across Yorkshire are currently on the Organ Donor waiting list.
Meanwhile in the last year, 10 families here have refused consent to donate a loved ones organs despite them being registered as donors. Mike said:
"It is such a gift of life and you really would be a hero to somebody. I don't know who my donor was or their family but I can only imagine what they went through but I hope they can take away the fact that they have helped prolong someone's life.
"The biggest thing it has given me is freedom. I am not having dialysis three times a week. You can be there on the machine for four hours and it takes up half a day or even a full day for some people. It's very draining and it fatigues your body, you're tired afterwards. I've got the freedom now and I don't have to plan anything around my dialysis and my health is better.
"Every body would nearly accept an organ but not everybody is signed up to it and it is such an easy thing to do, just a phone call or an email. It came out of the blue for me and so can happen to anyone.
"I know lots of friends who have passed away unfortunately and I know people who are still on dialysis and still waiting for transplants."
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust ‘Be A Hero’ campaign aims to raise awareness of the number of people waiting for transplants in the region and encourage more people to sign the donor register.
Dr Mike Felgate from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust says:
“We’re extremely excited to be launching the ‘Be A Hero’ campaign in Hull and East Yorkshire as it’s already been run in Leeds with remarkable results. The message behind the campaign is very simple; you don’t need 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. We would all accept an organ if we needed one, but only around a third of us have joined the Organ Donor Register.
“We hope that by showing how much potential there is in organ donation, and how many people in our area are in desperate need of transplants, we’re looking to motivate as many people as possible to sign the donor register ensuring that, in time, everybody who needs an organ in Hull will get one in time.”