NHS Blood and Transplant has launched a UK-wide multimedia campaign to promote organ donation.
The £3m campaign, coordinated by the government’s Central Office of Information, includes the health service’s first national television campaign and an online game.
The campaign aims to highlight the fact that three people in need of a transplant die every day, while only 27% of the population is signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
The television advertisement features a healthy-looking boy watching TV on the couch with a member of his family who becomes progressively more ill.
The image was chosen after research showed people are more likely to sign the register after recieving messages that remind them that ‘someone they love could need a transplant’ or ‘it could be you who needs a transplant’.
The online game, developed by PR agency Munro and Forster, is based on giving the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz a new heart.
To coincide with the launch of the campaign, NHS Blood and Transplant also published the results of a survey of 1,975 people. It showed that 96% would accept an organ if they needed one and 45% planned to sign up to the ODR but have not done so yet.
Lynda Hamlyn, chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, said more than 10,000 people are currently in need of a transplant.
She added: “By focusing on the gap between the number of us who say we would accept an organ if we needed one and the number who have actually joined the Register, our campaign highlights the urgent need for those who believe in organ donation to act now.”
Health secretary Andy Burnham said: “Most of us support organ donation and the overwhelming majority would take an organ if we needed it.
"I would urge everybody who supports organ donation to show it by signing up to the Organ Donor Register and discussing their wishes with their families."
Link: Organ Donor Register