Mansfield families urged to discuss delicate subject of organ donation

Families in Mansfield and Ashfield are being urged to talk about organ donation.
Have a conversation with your family about organ donation.Have a conversation with your family about organ donation.
Have a conversation with your family about organ donation.

The new NHS Leave Them Certain campaign aims to highlight the impact not knowing has on the families who are left behind and encourage people talk about their decision.

It follows a law change last year, which means that all adults are seen as willing to donate their organs, unless they opt out or are in one of the excluded groups.

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In Nottinghamshire, 426,347 people are currently on the NHS Organ Donor Register, with 24 people becoming donors in the last year, but the NHS needs more people to talk with their families about their decision.

Many still don’t realise that families will still be approached before any donation goes ahead.

As part of the campaign, a new TV advert launched featuring the Kakkad family. Shivum’s father Bharat died from a cardiac arrest when he was 63 in May 2019, but the family had never spoken about organ donation.

Shivum and his family did agree to organ donation, but it was a decision that could have been made easier if they’d had the conversation.

Shivum said: “My father was a very giving person.

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"When the specialist nurse approached us about organ donation, we made our decision.

"We knew that helping others in need was what my father would have wanted. But I wish we had spoken about it to know for certain and I would urge others to take the opportunity while they still can.”

Research shows that the biggest barrier to talking about organ donation is that it’s never come up in conversation, with 34 per cent of people stating this as their reason.

Anthony Clarkson, director of organ and tissue donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “People often tell us that they struggle to find the right time or words to talk about organ donation, unfortunately we see first-hand the impact not knowing has on families when the first time they consider their loved ones wishes around organ donation is when they are seriously ill or have already died.

"Talk to your friends, talk to your family. Please don’t wait. Have the conversation today.”

Find out more by visiting www.organdonation.nhs.uk.