Better Health For All

Dear FPH members and the wider public health community,

Organ Donation Week, taking place this week, is our opportunity every year to seek to encourage consideration and discussion of organ donation across the UK. As a consequence I am immensely grateful to be given this opportunity to reach out across your organisation and share a plea for help.

Every day in the UK 3 of our fellow citizens die because the organ for transplant they so desperately needed did not arrive in time. Look around your workplace and imagine that rate of attrition, 3 people every day passing away when there is no need, all that life and hope ended. That stark image is what drives us to encourage everyone to think about their own personal organ donation decision and just as importantly to have a conversation about that decision with their loved ones. We know over 80% of the UK population believe in Organ Donation and that where someone is on the Organ Donor Register and their loved ones know they want to be an organ donor that 92% of families support their donation decision. Where a family does not know the wishes of their loved one the number who agree to donation drops down to just under 50%.

So, my plea this Organ Donation Week is that if you want to be an organ donor you share that message, and if you believe in organ donation that you take the opportunity this special week offers to have a conversation about organ donation. Only by spreading the word can we offer hope to those waiting for an organ hoping for ‘the call’ before time runs out. Words Save Lives, that is our motto this Organ Donation Week and with your help we can make that a reality.

Thank you and best wishes

Anthony J. Clarkson