10,000 Lifesavers organ donation forms go out (From York Press)

10,000 Lifesavers organ donation forms go out

10:33am Friday 11th December 2009 in

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SAVING a life is about to get even easier for 10,000 readers of The Press.

For that is how many organ donation forms we are giving away next week, as we look to recruit an army of heroes.

Our new Lifesavers campaign, launched on Wednesday, aims to get an extra 20,000 people in our area to join the national Organ Donor Register by the end of next year.

Yesterday, the initiative received an instant boost, when it was praised by the Government Health Secretary Andy Burnham and it has now been given a further boost, after we were given 10,000 registration forms.

On Monday, a batch will be sent to all our newsagents and retailers across York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire meaning that wherever you buy your copy of The Press, you’ll be able to pick up a registration form.

The leaflets have been provided by the chair of City of York Council’s health committee, Coun James Alexander, who said he had also planned to campaign on the issue.

He said: “I back The Press’ Livesavers campaign to get more people on to the register and I will do all I can to help.

“Only recently, we have seen the tragic deaths of both Emma Young and Sam Sinclair.

“It reminds us how we need an increase in organ donors.

“This year the number agreeing to donate had increased by 6.5 per cent, but this was 1.5 per cent lower than the rise in those who need organs.”

Coun Alexander is among a growing number who want Britain to adopt a “presumed consent” approach to organ donation, which would see people’s organs used routinely, unless they had explicitly objected while alive.

That stance is also shared by the Liberal Democrats nationally, as well as York’s Labour MP Hugh Bayley, who said he will try to re-open the debate in Parliament if he keeps his seat at the General Election.

Coun Alexander said: “The Government wants to see 25 million people on the Organ Donor Register by 2013 and the number of donations to have increased by 50 per cent.

“This is only achievable through campaigns like Livesavers.”