Marking 30 years of the Organ Donation Register, this Organ Donation Week (23-29 September) is a chance to celebrate the lives changed by donation and encourage your friends and family to register their organ donation decision online or via the NHS App.
It takes just two minutes to register, but every donor could help save up to nine lives in the future.
Out of the more than 7,500 people waiting for an organ transplant, 6,250 are waiting for a kidney. Every single day, over 13 people are added to the list. The average wait time of two years for a kidney transplant also varies hugely across the country.
Every donation is precious: through the donation of kidneys or other organs, every donor has the potential to save or improve up to nine lives, or even more when people donate tissues like corneas, skin, and bone.
Organ donation will only ever go ahead with the support of the donor's family. Families are far more likely to support donation if a person has registered their support of organ donation on the register, and families say it gives them comfort and reassurance to know that donation is what their relative wanted.
Since the start of the Organ Donation Register there have been more than 100,000 transplants, with 60,000 patients still alive today.
Organ Donation Week 2024: get involved
Learn: Educate yourself about how organ donation works, and the impact it can have.
Share: If you or a loved one have personal experience of organ donation, consider sharing your experiences to help others.
Register: Take a few minutes to think about what your organ donation decision is and share your thoughts with your family. Encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Take part:
- "Go pink" to highlight the need for more organ donors and to remind people to register their decision.
- On social media, share our posts using the hashtag #OrganDonationWeek and tag Kidney Care UK to help raise awareness