Organ donor scheme gets boost from pharmacies - WalesOnline

Organ donor scheme gets boost from pharmacies - WalesOnline
Organ donor scheme gets boost from pharmacies by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

MORE than one person a week is being added to the organ transplant list in Wales.

In the last seven weeks, 12 more patients’ conditions have deteriorated to the point where they need a life-saving organ transplant.

The shocking figure comes as people in Wales will be able to register as potential organ donors as they pick up their prescription medicines from their local pharmacy.

The move, which is launched today at the start of Transplant week, is the latest stage of the Donate Wales – Tell a Loved One campaign, which aims to boost the number of people registered as donors and encourage them to talk about their wishes.

The registration forms will be available in Wales’ 719 pharmacies, including high street and independent chemists.

It is hoped that this campaign will help patients like 14-year-old Sahibaa Ali, from Newport, who has suffered from kidney failure most of her life.

Sahibaa will eventually need a new kidney – at the moment she is too ill to be put on the transplant list and is undergoing dialysis three times a week at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff.

She is one of the first patients in Wales to use a new haemodialysis machine which