Singer and TV Personality Alesha Dixon and Homeland star David Harewood have thrown their weight behind a new drive to increase life-saving organ and stem cell donations, Public Health Minister Anne Milton announced today.
Leading charities and organisations in the field including the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, the National Kidney Federation, NHS Blood and Transplant and the South Asian Health Foundation have been brought together to increase donor numbers in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) populations. The group hopes to change attitudes to donation and transplantation within these communities.
Every year, 180 people from these ethnic groups die waiting for a transplant because of a chronic shortage of suitable organs. Alesha and David are joining forces with stars including soul singer Beverley Knight and Bond film star Colin Salmon to back the campaign for more donors.
The new group, the National BAME Transplant Alliance, will bring together people and organisations with in-depth knowledge of their communities to address the problem of low donor and transplant rates.
These issues will include:
• people from these communities are three times more likely to need an organ transplant than the rest of the population – but under two per cent have recorded their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register; and
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
No comments:
Post a Comment