NHS Organ Donation Week: How to make sure you're a donor

18 September 2023, 06:30 | Updated: 21 September 2023, 15:30

By Alice Dear

In honour of Organ Donation Week, this week we're not just Heart. We’re Liver, Pancreas, and all the other organs that need donating for life-changing surgeries.

Organ Donation Week takes place between Monday 18th September – Sunday 24th September and highlights the lifesaving gift of organ donation to encourage people to be organ donors.

• Confirm your decision to be an organ donor online at organdonation.nhs.uk. It’s the best thing you’ll do today.

At the moment, there 7,000 people waiting for a transplant in the UK – meanwhile, there are only around 1,400 donors per year.

Just one person has the potential to save up to nine lives through organ donation and even more by also donating tissue.

This Organ Donation Week, the NHS are aiming to get 25,000 more people to confirm their decision to become an organ donors, which can be done by a quick visit to the NHS Organ Donor Register's website.

How to support Organ Donation Week:

• Confirm your decision to be an Organ Donor and encourage others to do the same.
• Wear pink! Pink is the colour of the NHS Organ Donor Card and can be worn to raise awareness of the life-saving gift of organ donation.
• Share your own donation story. By opening up about how an organ transplant changed your life, or the life of someone you love, you could encourage other people to confirm their place on the register too.

Confirm your decision to be an organ donor at organdonation.nhs.uk.

It’s the best thing you’ll do today.

Heart's NHS Organ Donation Week stories