One organ donor can save 7 lives! Organ Donation means that over 5,000 people around the country are currently enjoying the ‘gift of life’ after successful transplants. At any one time in Ireland there are between 550 and 600 people on waiting lists for organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas. The positive impact of organ donation and transplantation on their lives, and the lives of their friends and families, is immeasurable, giving comfort to the organ donor families who have made it possible.
Organ Donor Awareness Week 2023 will take place 20 – 27 May and is organised by the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) in association with the HSE’s Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI). It is fitting that the lifesaving awareness campaign coincides with European Public Health Week. During Organ Donor Awareness Week organ donor families and grateful transplant recipients from around the country are being asked to make their wishes known to loved ones about organ donation.
This year’s Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign is built around the theme ‘Don’t Leave Your Loved Ones in Doubt!’ #LeaveNoDoubt. The key message is that members of the public can play their part in supporting organ donation for transplantation by ensuring that their families are not left in any doubt about their wishes around organ donation. i.e., they ‘have the conversation’. Sharing your wishes when you are in good health makes it a less stressful decision for your family in the event of them being approached about you being a potential organ donor.
The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will officially launch Organ Donor Awareness Week on Tuesday 16th May. Optimistic for a successful campaign, the Irish Kidney Association are encouraging people to talk about organ donation and organise get togethers with family, friends and colleagues, including coffee mornings, picnics and walks, to share their wishes.
Many independent pharmacies and pharmacy chains will be showing their support for the campaign by displaying the campaign poster on their digital screens or displaying the printed version prominently in their outlets. They will also be displaying countertop boxes of free organ donor cards which are accompanied by information fact files and leveraging their social media presence to get the message across about having the family conversation.
An Post is also coming behind the campaign with 350 of its larger outlets displaying stocks of organ donor cards. The campaign poster will be carried on outdoor advertising poster sites, sponsored by Clear Channel.
All campaign posters will be available in English, Irish and Polish, and digital copies can be downloaded from the Irish Kidney Association’s website www.ika.ie/donorweek
The public is being asked to mark Organ Donor Awareness Week by getting together to discuss organ donation with their loved ones, and letting them know their wishes about organ donation. The organ donor card is the perfect icebreaker to start this conversation. Whether it’s organising a get together with family and friends, setting up a little information stand in your school, college, or place of work, it all makes a difference. You can request Organ Donor Cards via the IKA’s website www.ika.ie/donorweek The Irish Kidney Association also provides their ‘Digital Organ Donor Card’ which is free to download from the App Store and the Google Playstore.
At any one time in Ireland there are between 550 and 600 people active on waiting lists for organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas. 250 organ transplant operations were carried out in Ireland in 2022 (44 more transplants than in 2021). This activity last year, in very challenging times with COVID-19, could not have taken place but for the generosity of the families of 86 deceased donors and 33 living kidney donors. In 2022, 51 liver transplants and 8 pancreas transplants took place at St. Vincent’s Hospital, while 10 heart transplants and 8 pancreas transplants were carried out at the Mater Hospital.
Last year saw an increase in the number of kidney transplant taking place at Beaumont Hospital – 163 kidney transplants took place of which 33 were from Living Kidney Donors. There are 2,466 kidney patients in Ireland in end stage kidney failure undergoing dialysis treatment but only a fifth of these are on the transplant waiting list. The publication of the Human Tissue Bill, (which is expected to be passed into law), will allow for altruistic living kidney donation in Ireland where there is no relationship between the recipient and the organ donor. Currently such donors have to travel outside our jurisdiction to Northern Ireland or overseas in order to donate altruistically.
Ms. Carol Moore Chief Executive, Irish Kidney Association said, “We greatly value the role of pharmacies in helping to spread the message about the importance of organ donation by displaying the campaign poster and carrying stocks of organ donor cards.
Organ donation is a great example of active citizenship, and the Irish Kidney Association is calling on everybody to take the opportunity of Organ Donor Awareness Week to share their wishes.
Patients on transplant waiting lists live in hope that organs will become available to them and a strong public show of support by requesting organ donor cards builds that hope. The uncertainty associated with waiting for an organ transplant is difficult as the future is unknown and there is the knowledge that in order to be given the Gift of Life another family will be grieving the loss of a loved one”.
Social media hashtags for Organ Donor Awareness Week are: #LeaveNoDoubt, #ShareYourWishes and #DonorWeek23. People can also tag the Irish Kidney Association when doing their own social media posts (@IrishKidneyAs on Twitter, @IrishKidneyA on Instagram , @IrishKidneyAssociation on Facebook).