1 Year of Opt Out for Wales

Thursday 1st December marked the first anniversary of the Opt Out organ & tissue donation system in Wales. And one year on the results are very encouraging! 39 out of the total 160 organ transplants carried out in Wales in the past year were from deemed consent that's almost a quarter due to the new system! Okay so that may not sound that great but is pretty amazing after just one year. 39 people who might no longer be here if it wasn't for this system have been given a second chance at life. Ministers say more lives are being saved due to the system. And very excitingly an annual report shows that the overall consent rate for donation has increased from 48.5% to 59.2%. Here's a link to a great article about the results & includes two insightful video clips: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38144547 I also had the lovely surprise of listening to Kimberley Chard on BBC Radio 1 on Newsbeat talking about her transplant experience as a double-lung transplantee in Wales & her thoughts on the new system. Listen from 7 mins 40 secs in up until 10mins 45secs approximately: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082w43t Thank you for all your support so far. We have over 3000 signatures with the handwritten ones added on. If everyone were to share now and get just one extra signature we'd be well on our way to smashing 6000 signatures! Kindest regards Lucy Ryan