AN Oakworth couple whose daughter’s death gave life to others are backing a new campaign urging families to talk about organ donation. When 32-year-old Claire McKeown was killed by a drunk driver in 2011, her organs saved several lives and transformed others. “It will be ten years on July 1 since we lost Claire,” say her parents, Martin and Sally Walker. “She saved four lives through organ donation, as we knew her wishes, but it is never too early to have ‘the conversation’ with your loved ones. “This is particularly important for the BAME community – as an imam said to me, ‘if you save one life, you save the world’ – something we can all relate to in these sad times.”
FAMILIES have been urged to talk about organ donation as part of a new NHS campaign. The Leave Them Certain campaign follows a research which shows that less than half of adults in England have had the conversation. It aims to highlight the impact not knowing has on the families who are left behind. A total of 329,663 people in Wiltshire are currently on the NHS Organ Donor Register, with 18 people becoming donors in the last year. Director of organ and tissue donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant Anthony Clarkson said: “People often tell us that they struggle to find the right time or words to talk about organ donation, unfortunately we see first-hand the impact not knowing has on families when the first time they consider their loved ones wishes around organ donation is when they are seriously ill or have already died.”
Posted: 10 February 2021
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust urges people to talk to family and ‘Leave Them Certain’ about organ donation
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is backing a new NHS campaign to urge families in Buckinghamshire to talk about organ donation following research that less than half of adults in England have had the conversation.
The Leave Them Certain campaign aims to highlight the impact not knowing has on the families who are left behind and encourage people talk about their decision. It follows the law change last year in England, which means that all adults are now seen as willing to donate their organs, unless they opt out or are in one of the excluded groups.