WHILE we all look forward to spending Christmas with loved ones and exchanging gifts, there are 81 people in Dorset desperately hoping for the gift of an organ.

This December, the Dorset Echo is teaming up with NHS Blood and Transplant urge as many people as possible to sign up to the donor register.

Sadly, not all of those waiting will get the transplant they need.

Twenty-eight people in Dorset have died while on the transplant waiting list during the past five years, and their families will be facing Christmas without them.

Seven in Weymouth and Portland and 14 in West Dorset are currently waiting for a transplant.

Dorset Echo editor Toby Granville said: “There is no greater gift than the gift of life – so we are calling on all our readers to make the ultimate difference this Christmas and sign up to be a donor.”

A DORSET doctor is backing the Dorset Echo’s Give a Life for Christmas campaign encouraging readers to sign up to the organ donor register.

Dr Andrew Ball, clinical lead for organ donation at Dorset County Hospital, has also publicly thanked the families of the selfless people who saved lives by donating their organs.

Dr Ball, also a consultant in critical care, told how his role came about through a national move to tackle an organ donor shortage.

“For many years the number of people on the waiting list for organ transplant has been increasing while the number of organs available for transplant remained fairly static. In 2008 the NHS blood and transplant donation taskforce developed a strategy to attempt to increase the number of organ donors by 50 per cent in five years.

“This strategy included several different strands with the overall goal of increasing the public understanding of the process for organ donation and promoting discussion amongst family members of each individuals’ wishes.

“In addition the plan included work to ensure that all patients who would wish to donate their organs were given the opportunity to attempt to donate and to make organ donation discussions a routine.”

Each acute hospital appointed a clinical lead for organ donation and specialist nurses and seven organ retrieval teams were set up nationally.

Dr Ball said: “As a result in April 2013 the goal of a 50 per cent increase in deceased organ donors was achieved ahead of target and for the first time the gap between the number of available organs and the number of people began to narrow.”

Despite what he describes as a ‘fantastic achievement which has only been possible through the huge generosity of the public’, there is still a significant shortage of organs.

Three people die in the UK every year whilst waiting for a transplant and nearly 7,000 people are on the transplant waiting list.

Dr Ball said: “Every donor is precious as only about 5,000 people each year die in circumstances that would allow them to donate their organs and give the gift of life.

“We urge everyone to consider whether they would wish to become a donor, to discuss their wishes with their family and sign up to the national organ donation register if appropriate.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those families whose loved ones have donated organs. Make a choice and make it known.”

Join now
To join the NHS Organ Donor Register, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or text SAVE to 62323. 
Sign up and tell those closest to you that you want to donate