WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Organ-donor volunteer numbers soar after TV campaign

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Organ-donor volunteer numbers soar after TV campaign

Organ-donor volunteer numbers soar after TV campaign
Apr 24 2009 by Gregory Tindle, Western Mail

A HARD-HITTING Welsh organ donor appeal which sparked complaints to the Advertising Standard Authority has led to a massive increase in people wanting to become donors.

Following the launch of the Save Sian television campaign by the Kidney Wales Foundation, the numbers joining the Organ Donor Register in Wales has increased by 62%.

In the first month of the charity’s Donate Wales Save Sian campaign, nearly 4,500 people pledged to become donors. This compares to 2,763 people who signed up during the same period from March 12 to April 9 in 2008. The total number of people now registered as organ donors in Wales is now more than 817,000.

Roy J Thomas, chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, said: “It is hugely encouraging to the hundreds of people in Wales waiting for a transplant that the response to the Save Sian advert has been so overwhelming.”

He added: “The advert did fuel a small number of complaints, but these were not upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority who in its adjudication said most viewers would understand the importance of the advert.”

The commercial was funded by a £70,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly Government and depicted a young child on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant.

The advert centred on a six-year-old girl to highlighted the shortage of donors in Wales. Sian pleads with viewers: “Don’t let me die.”