Organ donation

When the Organ Donation donation law changed, there were a lot of myths and confusions about what that may look like and how that may seem.

Particularly with patients from ethnic minorities, it’s incredibly important that your decisions and wishes are heard.

It’s incredibly important that you speak to people that you trust who will uphold those decisions and wishes after you die.

So there are a lot of myths around organ donation and what organisation actually is and actually looks like.

I would guide people to the myth busting, webpage, which lays out actually what organ donation is.

When it comes to ethnic minority or religious groups that might disagree with organ donation, it’s really challenging because a lot of what they have learned is it just isn’t true and it isn’t how organ donation actually is and how it actually looks.

For me, I think within any culture, religion, charity is always seen in a very high regard.

And in my opinion, there’s no greater gift of charity than donating your organs to someone that you, after you them live their life.

And I think that’s just really powerful and something that we should all really reflect on.

Talking about organ donation with my family was tricky. I decided that I wanted to register as an organ donor, but sharing this decision was met with confusion and disagreement by my family. For them, organ donation is associated with negative stories of trafficking and organ harvesting. It was a tough conversation, but I explained that organ donation is about saving lives and that there is a shortage of organs for people of black ethnicity. I think we need to raise awareness and breakdown the myths and fears associated with organ donation.

I know that organ donation can save lives, and I want to make sure that if I was in a position to donate, that this would be respected. I want my family to understand and respect my decision, so that if I am in a position to donate, they will support this. We talked through the facts about organ donation, what it would involve, and why I want to donate to help others. They understand it is my decision.

I learnt about organ donation from the news when the new opt-out legislation was being introduced. I looked a bit more into organ donation and felt like this was something that I would want to do if I were to die and be able to donate my organs.

I was also really shocked of how affected people from my community are.

It is our people that are dying.

This is the message that needs to be out there.

But we need to be less divided as a community.

We have a responsibility to share the truth and combat against harmful misinformation.

For many patients in need of a transplant the best match will come from a donor from the same ethnic background. Black and Asian people have to wait on average a year longer than white people for a kidney transplant.

I want to share why I made the decision to register as an organ donor. Being Black, I’ve learned that patients like me often face longer waits for transplants. The NHS says it’s about a year longer for a kidney transplant. So, I thought, why not make a difference? If I can increase the chances of someone from my ethnic background finding a match, maybe even save a life, that’s huge. I know some people in my community might have reservations or misconceptions about organ donation. It’s really important to get all the facts for yourself. We can make a real impact by having more conversations and making informed choices.