30 years of saving lives – teams at Portsmouth University Hospitals Trust celebrate Organ Donation Week

This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Organ Donation Register and Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust is celebrating Organ Donation Week, which runs from Monday September 23, to Sunday September 29, by encouraging people to sign up and record their decision around organ donation.

Every day, three people in the UK die waiting for a transplant due to a shortage of donations. Right now, there are around 7,000 people waiting for a transplant. Signing up to the Organ Donation register takes just two minutes and could save up to nine lives - even more with tissue donations.

Queen Alexandra Hospital houses The Wessex Kidney Centre (WKC), a regional renal and transplant centre, performing around 100 kidney transplants a year and supporting over a thousand patients as they navigate their way through kidney failure, dialysis and waiting for an organ.

Paul Tucker, 56 from Basingstoke spent two years waiting for a kidney after a chance visit to the opticians noticed high blood pressure and sent him for tests. Getting a new kidney following a donation has been life changing for Paul: “I have a fairly rare blood type so I had to wait for one that was suitable to become available, which took a while. When you’re on dialysis and waiting for a transplant you are just focussed on trying your best to get through it and to stay positive for the people around you. For me the biggest change has been being able to go out without worrying and to get back to normality. To be able to do that feels amazing.”

Recording your decision and making family and loved ones aware is vitally important so that should the worst happen, they can be confident in their decision making, knowing it is what their loved one would have wanted.

Jack Rubens, Specialist Nurse Organ Donation at Queen Alexandra Hospital said: “Every donation can make such a difference to so many lives. Confirming your decision to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register makes it clear to your family that you want to be an organ donor, leaving them certain of your decision at what is a difficult and emotional time. We need more people in Portsmouth to confirm their decision on the register today in order to save more lives now and in the future.”

Despite the law changing and the UK adopting an opt-out system, no-one is automatically added to the NHS Organ Donor Register. A family will always be consulted before donation goes ahead which is why it is so important to confirm your decision via the register and ensure your family know your wishes.

Visit the NHS Blood and Transplant website to record your decision.