The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Blood and Transplant are working to promote organ and blood donation to people throughout Hillingdon.

From March onwards, Hillingdon Hospitals, will be using its fleet of vehicles to encourage the local community to sign up for organ donation and to give blood.

Two vehicles will carry messaging reminding people how they can save lives by giving blood or joining the NHS Organ Donor Register. 

The new initiative in Hillingdon will be officially launched by Shane Degaris, CEO of The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Ian Trenholm, CEO of NHS Blood and Transplant.

Shane said :“We are pleased to be able to support this great cause in order to raise the profile of this vital need in the community.

“Signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register and giving blood is something that many people want to do but just don’t get round to.

“We hope that this message on our Trust vans reminds people in the local community to take action along with the details of where to go for more information.”

As the second largest borough in London, with over 270,000 residents, Hillingdon is a major target for increasing the number of donors.

And with over a quarter of people in the borough from an Asian or Asian British background and 7.3% from a Black or Black British background, there is a particular hope within the NHS that people from these backgrounds will register as new blood or organ donors.

Currently, despite making up 14% of the total UK population, only 3% of donors who gave blood in the last 12 months are of black or Asian heritage.

Yet people from these communities more likely to have rare blood types.

People from these communities are also more likely to have conditions like Sickle Cell Disease or Thalassaemia, which require regular blood transfusions.

For patients with these conditions, blood from donors with a similar ethnic background gives the best match and long term outcomes.

At the same time, last year 23% of all kidney transplant recipients were from black and Asian communities, and black and Asian patients made up 32% of the active kidney transplant waiting list.

However, during the same period, just 5% of all donors were from these communities. 

Across the UK, around 6500 people are currently on the transplant waiting list. Last year nearly 500 people died in the UK waiting for a transplant.

Join the NHS Organ Donor Register by visiting www.organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 and make sure you tell your friends and family your decision.