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‘AMAZING GIFT’: Enfield councillor Krystle Fonyonga

NHS BLOOD and Transplant (NHSBT) is urging people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities to consider donating organs following the launch of a campaign to tackle the critical shortage of donors from culturally diverse backgrounds.

While nearly a quarter of people waiting for a kidney transplant are black, Asian or from another minority ethnic group, fewer than 6 per cent of those who have joined the organ donor register (ODR) to pledge their organs for transplantation after their death are from BAME groups.

Fewer than a third of black and Asian families allow a dead relative’s organs to be used, compared with two-thirds of white families.

AWARENESS

More than 1,300 people died waiting for a transplant in the UK last year.

NHSBT launched an awareness campaign earlier this month during Organ Donation Week which ended on September 11.
However, following the launch the body is urging BAME communities to discuss the issue.

Sally Johnson of NHSBT has been spearheading developments within NHSBT and the wider NHS to bring about increases in organ donation across the UK population as a whole, following publication of the Organ Donation Taskforce report Organs for Transplants in 2008.

She explained that as most people are prepared to accept a donated organ, they needed to be ready to donate also.

Johnson said: “It is especially important for people from our black and Asian communities to talk about organ donation. I realise that this is a very difficult subject, but there are many black and Asian people who need a transplant. While some are able to receive an organ from a white donor, others will die if there is no donor from their own community.”

Although people from BAME backgrounds can receive organs from white donors, the best match is often from a person with the same ethnic background.

According to figures from the Organ Donation and Transplantation Activity Report 2015-16, which was published during the recent Organ Donation Week:

CAMPAIGN: A poster from a recent NHSBT awareness drive

As well as encouraging more people from culturally diverse backgrounds to come forward the campaign is also seeking to increase the UK’s rate of donations, currently among the lowest in Europe.

OBSTACLES

NHSBT say that family refusal is the biggest obstacle to organ donation. And the body organ donation as “relatively rare” in the UK, because although more than half a million people die each year, only about 1 per cent do so in circumstances which allow organs to be donated.

Enfield councillor Krystle Fonyonga, who is spearheading awareness efforts in the north London borough, said: “It’s such an amazing gift that we can all do and there aren’t any restrictions. People in their 80s can donate an organ so I really would like every Enfield resident to think about it – tell their friends and encourage their family to donate.”

She added: “In Enfield 95 per cent of organ donors are from white communities so it’s generally a closer match if the organs come from someone of the same ethnic background. We really want to raise awareness from ethnic minorities as well as every other community - and we would just like everyone to register.”

For further information about organ donation please visit www.nhsbt.nhs.uk