Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Urgent Petition

The girls and I had a great time in Brighton today and I was planning to blog about that. However, I found out about the following petition and want to use my blog space tonight to ask that anyone reading this before midnight tonight could seriously consider signing.

I have known of 2 children who died waiting for a small bowel/liver transplant. I have also heard of countless young adults dying whilst waiting for new lungs. We coudl find ourselves on the transplant list within a few weeks and, if so, I will do all I can to use our story to promote organ donation. This petition is mainly about bone marrow donation but will also include blood and organ donation.


I have just received this from a friend, having been out all day. It concerns a petition that is being delivered to Downing Street tomorrow as part of a campaign to include education on organ, bone marrow and blood donation in schools. Currently, only 20% of the population are on the organ donor register but over 80% think it is a good idea and would hope to get an organ if they needed one. There are over 7500 people waiting for organ transplants. Last year, 450 people died because an organ did not come their way in time. Obviously, 1000s more receive blood transfusions. A petition is being delivered to 10 Downing Street tomorrow. It's part of a campaign to get the government to make it an obligation of colleges to provide education on organ, bone and blood donation to students up to 18 years old: http:/petitions.pm.gov.uk/bone-marrow/ If they can get a few more signatures before midnight tonight (Wednesday 23rd July) it will register as the 6th best supported petition to the government. It's been started by a guy called Adrian Sudbury who you may have seen in the media a lot lately. Adrian has just had his 27th Birthday but has only weeks left to live because he has leukaemia. He has decided to spend what time he has left ensuring that he leaves behind a lasting legacy of education on bood, bone and organ donation for everyone before they leave school. He has met with the Prime Minister and key government officials and they are starting to look at ways to implement the scheme, You can follow Adrian's blog here: http://baldyblog.freshblogs.co.uk/ He's an amazing guy and it will make a huge difference to have every extra signature on the petition. Thanks!


For more info on transplants and joining the organ donor registry please see http://www.livelifethengivelife.co.uk/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed Brighton and loved the red sparkly shoes for the bear!

SherryB