Life saving family chat
Tell Your Loved Ones – this Thursday
Thursday 11th December is Tell Your Loved One Day. This day-long campaign has the backing of the First and Deputy First Ministers and simply involves as many people as possible across Northern Ireland sitting down and discussing openly with their families whether or not they wish to be organ donors.
84% of people in Northern Ireland support the idea of organ donation yet the latest statistics reveal that 38% of families refuse to give consent to the donation of their loved one’s organs when faced with this choice.
And without family consent donation will not happen, regardless of whether the deceased was on the register or not.
The most common reason for families withholding consent is because they had never been told that their loved one wished to be a donor. If donation rates are to increase, talk about an individual’s willingness to donate must be more widespread and more open.
Please support Tell Your Loved One Day in your own homes. And please encourage friends and wider family to have the same talk at some stage of the day. Currently 15 people per year from Northern Ireland die on the waiting list. Open dialogue will lead to more awareness of the life saving power of donation – one deceased person can save many lives – and greater awareness will lead to fewer people dying.
This Thursday:
- sit down,
- speak up,
- share your decisions,
- save lives.
