HARD-HITTING TELEVISION COMMERCIAL AIMS TO END ORGAN DONOR CRISIS IN WALES

HARD-HITTING TELEVISION COMMERCIAL AIMS TO END ORGAN DONOR CRISIS IN WALES

A hard-hitting television commercial graphically depicting a young child on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant will be premiered on Welsh TV screens tonight (Thursday, March 12) urging viewers to join the Organ Donor Register.

The Save Sian Campaign has been launched on World Kidney Day as part of the Kidney Wales Foundation’s Donate Wales – Tell a Loved One organ donation drive. It has been funded by a £70,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly Government as well as additional funding from Kidney Wales.

The advert, which can only be screened after 7.30pm because of its content, centres on a six-year-old girl waiting for a kidney transplant and highlights how, because of the desperate shortage of donors in Wales, Sian faces an agonising wait before getting that second chance a transplant would give her.

It urges viewers to Help Save Sian – played by a child actress – by joining the Register and explains how it takes just two minutes to sign-up. In the closing scene Sian pleads with viewers: “Don’t let me die.” The advert will run (on ITV & S4C) until March 28.

Edwina Hart, Minister for Health and Social Services, said: “Currently, nearly 500 people in Wales are listed for a transplant – the majority waiting for a new kidney. Yet because of the organ donor crisis, statistically one person dies every 11 days waiting for a transplant in the principality – the equivalent of more than 150 people in the last five years.

“We are jointly funding this Campaign and are committed to improved services as well as encouraging more of us to join the Organ Donation Register. It is the responsibility of all of us to support the Campaign.”

Roy J. Thomas, Chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, said: “We are in the grips of an organ donor crisis in Wales and the urgency upon more people joining the Organ Donor Register has never been greater. In Scotland 32% of people have joined the Register, yet in Wales just 27% have made that life-saving pledge.

“This isn’t because people don’t want to help; we know 90% of people in Wales support organ donation. It is because not enough have acted on their good intentions and signed-up.

“The brutal reality is that people in Wales are dying as a result and unless more people take that all important vital step of signing-up and telling their loved ones about their wishes then more and more people will needlessly die waiting for a transplant.”

The Donate Wales campaign was launched by Kidney Wales last May and since then more than 34,000 people have joined the Organ Donor Register.

To join the Organ Donor Register call 0845 60 60 400, text GIVE to 64118 or visit donatewales.org.

Bydd hysbyseb deledu rymus sy’n rhoi darlun graffig o blentyn ifanc ar ddialysis yn aros am drawsblaniad aren yn cael ei dangos am y tro cyntaf ar sgriniau teledu yng Nghymru heno (dydd Iau, 12 Mawrth) yn annog gwylwyr i ymuno â’r Gofrestr Rhoddwyr Organau.

Lansiwyd Ymgyrch Achub Siân ar Ddiwrnod yr Aren fel rhan o ymgyrch Sefydliad Aren Cymru ar gyfer cyfrannu organau, Rhodd Cymru – Dywed wrth Rywun Agos. Mae wedi cael ei hariannu gan grant £70,000 gan Lywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru yn ogystal â chyllid ychwanegol gan Sefydliad Aren Cymru.

Mae’r hysbyseb, y gellir ond ei gweld ar y teledu ar ôl 7.30pm oherwydd ei chynnwys, yn canolbwyntio ar ferch chwech oed sy’n aros am drawsblaniad aren, ac mae’n amlygu’r modd y mae Siân, oherwydd prinder difrifol o roddwyr yng Nghymru, yn wynebu arhosiad ingol cyn cael yr ail gyfle hwnnw y byddai trawsblaniad yn ei roi iddi.

Mae’n annog gwylwyr i Helpu Achub Siân – sy’n cael ei hactio gan blentyn – trwy ymuno â’r Gofrestr ac yn esbonio’r ffaith mai dim ond dwy funud y mae’n cymryd i ymuno. Yn yr olygfa derfynol, mae Siân yn pledio â’r gwylwyr: “Peidiwch â gadael i mi farw.” Bydd yr hysbyseb yn cael ei dangos (ar ITV ac S4C) tan 28 Mawrth.

Dywedodd Edwina Hart, y Gweinidog dros Iechyd a Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol: “Ar hyn o bryd, mae bron i 500 o bobl yng Nghymru wedi’u rhestru ar gyfer cael trawsblaniad – a’r mwyafrif yn aros am aren newydd. Ond eto, oherwydd yr argyfwng gyda rhoddwyr organau, yn ystadegol mae un person yn marw bob 11 diwrnod yn aros am drawsblaniad – mae hyn gyfwerth â thros 150 o bobl yn y pum mlynedd diwethaf.

“Rydym ni’n ariannu’r Ymgyrch hon ar y cyd ac wedi ymrwymo i wasanaethau gwell yn ogystal ag annog mwy ohonom ni i ymuno â’r Gofrestr Rhoddwyr Organau. Cyfrifoldeb pob un ohonom ni yw cefnogi’r Ymgyrch.”

Dywedodd Roy J. Thomas, Cadeirydd Sefydliad Aren Cymru: “Rydym ni’n wynebu argyfwng o ran rhoi organau yng Nghymru, a dydy’r brys i gael mwy o bobl i ymuno â’r Gofrestr Rhoddwyr Organau erioed wedi bod yn fwy. Yn yr Alban, mae 32% o bobl wedi ymuno â’r Gofrestr, ond eto yng Nghymru, dim ond 27% sydd wedi gwneud yr adduned honno i achub bywyd.

“Dydy hyn ddim oherwydd nad yw pobl eisiau helpu; rydym ni’n gwybod bod 90% o bobl yng Nghymru yn cefnogi rhoi organau. Mae hyn oherwydd nad oes digon o bobl wedi gweithredu eu bwriadau da ac ymuno.

“Y gwirionedd creulon yw bod pobl yng Nghymru yn marw o ganlyniad ac oni bai bod mwy o bobl yn cymryd y cam holl bwysig hwnnw o ymuno a dweud wrth y rhai maen nhw’n eu caru am eu dymuniadau, yna bydd mwy a mwy o bobl yn marw’n ddiangen wrth aros am drawsblaniad.”





For more information or case studies contact Noel Davies, Head of Development, Communications and Events, on 029 2034 3940.

Notes to editors
1. Currently 494 people in Wales are listed for a transplant. This breaksdown to: 443 waiting for a kidney; three for a pancreas; 18 for a kidney/pancreas; five for a heart; 14 for lungs; and 11 for a liver.
2. In the last five years 768 peoples’ lives in Wales have been transformed by the gift of a donor through an organ donor transplant. A further 584 have been given the gift of sight by either a cornea or sclera transplant.
3. Around 10,000 people in Wales are now suffering from some form of chronic kidney disease.
4. With Kidney Wales’ support, the Welsh Assembly Government is steering forward improvements to renal care in Wales including the new renal dialysis unit at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.

5. A kidney transplant remains the best long-term hope for those suffering with kidney failure. The long-term survival of a kidney transplant continues to improve with 92% of kidney grafts from cadaveric donors and 95% of those from living donors still functioning one-year after transplant.
6. The Kidney Wales Foundation is one of Wales’ oldest and biggest charities. In the 1970s it launched the Kidney Donor Card and a decade established Lifeline Wales – the precursor to today’s Organ Donor Register.