The Orgamites:  An Intervention to Save Lives 

The problem: 

There is a chronic shortage of organ donors in this country.  Almost 49,000 people in the UK have endured the wait for a transplant in the last 10 years with over 6,000 – including many children – dying before receiving the organ they desperately need.  By making organ donation the norm, we will not only save these lives, we will also bring happiness to tens of thousands more of their family and friends. 

How do we achieve that?  

Teaching our children (or them teaching us!) about organ transplantation is the single most effective way to disrupt the negative cycle of people not signing up to the organ donor register, or of families overruling a donor’s dying wish.  We are thus petitioning to have organ transplantation education made a mandatory part of the primary school National Curriculum. 

Like racism, prejudice, or any other deep rooted issue, we ultimately affect change through children, teaching the next generation that organ donation is the normal thing to do so they in turn pass it on to their children.  The subject of organ transplantation is not mandatory on the school curriculum, and most children are completely unaware of the whole issue. But when you talk to children about this, they immediately see how vital it is, and embrace the idea that they everyone should be donors. 

Who are the Orgamites? 

The Orgamites are a family of cute animated characters representing the major organs in the body.  They make it fun and easy for children to learn about organs and transplantation, and will help educate parents and children about the shortage of organ donors. www.orgamites.com 

Helping teachers: 

We appreciate that there are a lot of demands on teachers, and have thus developed a comprehensive pack of teaching materials and lesson plans for teachers that will supplement their existing lessons on organs, making it easy for them to integrate this theme into their lessons with no additional effort. 

What you can do: 

Please sign the petition to make organ transplantation education made a mandatory part of the primary school National Curriculum.  We (and the Orgamites!) will do the rest. 

Thank you for your consideration.  Working together, we can end the negative cycle of wasted organs and unnecessary deaths. 

Don Macnab-Stark & Roydon Turner

www.orgamites.com