Sign as a donor and save a life

Bristol's leading transplant surgeon has backed calls for morepeople to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register, which celebratedits 10th birthday this week.

Mr Paul Lear, consultant transplant and vascular surgeon and headof surgery at North Bristol NHS Trust, has joined ranks with fivecolleagues nationally to urge members of the public to help others tolive once they have passed away.

Research has previously shown that about 90 per cent of thepopulation believe in organ donation - yet only 18 per cent are onthe Organ Donor Register (ODR).

The register is run by UK Transplant, which has its base in StokeGifford and currently has 5,936 people on its waiting list.

In the 10 years that it has existed, 11,613,68 people have joined.In the same time about 4,000 people have died while waiting for adonor organ.

Mr Lear, who works at Southmead Hospital, which is run by theNorth Bristol trust, said he felt that people did not truly realisethe extent to which their organs could help others.

He said: "Organ donation is a very emotive topic.

"A tragedy for one family is a gift for another.

"If the public was aware of what it means to be able to say tosomeone that their liver or heart transplant can go ahead thenperhaps more people would make the effort and sign on to theregister."

Mr Lear has specialised in transplant surgery for most of hisdistinguished career and has been based in the Bristol transplantdepartment for 13 years.

His name and that of senior surgeons from NHS trusts in London,Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield were printed in support of a letterwritten to The Times newspaper yesterday.

The original letter was issued by the British Medical Association(BMA) chairman James Johnson.

The BMA has for some time lobbied the Government for theintroduction of 'presumed consent', which means a person or theirfamily have to make a decision not to donate organs after theirdeath.

Mr Johnson said: "It is no secret that the BMA would like to seethe introduction of presumed consent for organ donation in the UK.

"This means that individuals would have to opt out if they did notwant to donate their organs.

"But until we have such a system, the BMA is 100 per cent behindthe Organ Donor Register and it is great know that surgeons like MrLear are behind this initiative."