NEW guidance to boost the number of organs donated for transplant has been issued to the NHS.

The guidance contains advice on how hospital staff should approach families as their loved ones near the end of their lives.

More than 10,000 people in the UK currently need a transplant and about 1,000 people die every year waiting for an organ, and although 29 per cent of people are on the organ donor register but donation rates in the UK remain poor due in part to the reluctance of relatives to consent to the process.

Last year, The Press ran its Lifesavers campaign to raise awareness of organ donation and to urge people to join the donor register.

To join the donor register, log on to organdonation.nhs.uk