5 September 2018

The Trust which runs Shropshire’s acute hospitals is working with NHS Blood and Transplant to promote organ donation to all its patients, visitors and staff.

Fiona Deakin, Specialist Nurse for Organ Donation at SaTH, with one of the lifts

Lift doors at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford have been covered with promotional messages urging people to sign up to be an organ donor.

There are 40 people currently across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin who need a lifesaving organ transplant. They need people to say yes to organ donation so they can get the organ they so desperately need.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and PRH, is promoting organ donation in the hope that it will make people think about it while waiting for the lift and then go on to register. This would hopefully, in turn, open the door to more people getting the transplants they need.

Eight in 10 of us agree it’s important to tell those closest to us our views about organ donation after death, but only a third say their family knows their wishes about organ donation.*

Fiona Deakin, Specialist Nurse for Organ Donation at SaTH, said: “Organ donation saves lives and one organ donor can save or transform up to nine lives – and even more by donating tissue as well.

“I know that more families agree to donation if they know their loved one was on the Organ Donor Register.

“Save your family from having to guess what you would have wanted. Join the NHS Organ Donor Register and let your family know your decision. One day it could be someone you love in need of a transplant.”

Deirdre Fowler, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Quality at SaTH, added: “We are delighted to be promoting organ donation on the doors of some of the lifts within the hospital. Transplants save lives and are only possible if people are willing to donate.

“Every single hospital in the UK will be in a town or city where there are patients waiting for a transplant and we hope this initiative will prompt our employees, patients and visitors to the hospital to think about organ donation and to commit to save lives as a donor by signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.”

Sign up today at www.organdonation.nhs.uk and Let your friends and family know you want to help others after your death.