Source: The Buck Herald
A team of medics and transplant patients is preparing to take on the "toughest challenge in team sailing" to promote the potential of organ donations to transform lives.
The 12 people from across the UK are set to take part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in 2011/12.
The team - which includes two kidney transplant patients, a liver transplant patient and a recipient of a double lung transplant - hopes the endeavour will send out a positive message about the benefits of transplantation and promote organ donation on a global stage.
The project is being led by Steve Wigmore, professor of transplantation surgery and the clinical lead for transplantation at the University of Edinburgh.
He said: "It's quite daunting, but it's very exciting at the same time. The whole purpose of doing this is to demonstrate the amazing potential that transplants have.
"This race is the toughest challenge in team sailing and we hope people will find what we're doing to be inspirational and we're looking to try and get people to sign up to the organ donor register."
There is a national shortage of organs for transplantation.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race involves identical racing yachts, each crewed by around 20 people. The next race will run from September 2011 to July 2012 and will cover around 40,000 miles, visiting 15 countries.
The team of doctors, nurses and transplant patients, known as "transplant ambassadors", will each sail a leg of the race, which starts and finishes in the UK.
Prof Wigmore, along with a transplant patient who was treated in Edinburgh, is set to sail from China to San Francisco, in the US, in March 2012.
The team - which includes two kidney transplant patients, a liver transplant patient and a recipient of a double lung transplant - hopes the endeavour will send out a positive message about the benefits of transplantation and promote organ donation on a global stage.
The project is being led by Steve Wigmore, professor of transplantation surgery and the clinical lead for transplantation at the University of Edinburgh.
He said: "It's quite daunting, but it's very exciting at the same time. The whole purpose of doing this is to demonstrate the amazing potential that transplants have.
"This race is the toughest challenge in team sailing and we hope people will find what we're doing to be inspirational and we're looking to try and get people to sign up to the organ donor register."
There is a national shortage of organs for transplantation.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race involves identical racing yachts, each crewed by around 20 people. The next race will run from September 2011 to July 2012 and will cover around 40,000 miles, visiting 15 countries.
The team of doctors, nurses and transplant patients, known as "transplant ambassadors", will each sail a leg of the race, which starts and finishes in the UK.
Prof Wigmore, along with a transplant patient who was treated in Edinburgh, is set to sail from China to San Francisco, in the US, in March 2012.
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