Kirsty BACKS HARD-HITTING TELEVISION AD TO END ORGAN DONOR CRISIS IN WALES (Kirsty Williams AM )

Kirsty BACKS HARD-HITTING TELEVISION AD TO END ORGAN DONOR CRISIS IN WALES

March 12, 2009 12:00 AM

Kirsty Williams AM is urging her constituents to get behind a hard-hitting TV campaign which graphically depicts a young child on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant. The advert, which will premier on Welsh TV screens tonight (Thursday, March 12), will urge viewers to join the Organ Donor Register.

The Save Sian Campaign has been launched on World Kidney Day as part of the Kidney Wales Foundation's Donate Wales - Tell a Loved One organ donation drive. It has been funded by a £70,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly Government as well as additional funding from Kidney Wales.

The advert, which can only be screened after 7.30pm because of its content, centres on a six-year-old girl waiting for a kidney transplant and highlights how, because of the desperate shortage of donors in Wales, Sian faces an agonising wait before getting that second chance a transplant would give her.

It urges viewers to Help Save Sian - played by a child actress - by joining the Register and explains how it takes just two to sign-up. In the closing scene Sian pleads with viewers: "Don't let me die." The advert will run (on ITV and S4C) until March 28. Viewers can also see the advert online at www.donatewales.org/savesian

Kirsty Williams AM for Brecon & Radnorshire said: "There are hundreds of people in Wales in need of a transplant and many are desperately waiting for a kidney. It is paramount that we get more people signing up to donate; there are so many people that want to do so but may not have got around to it or know how to do so.

"Every one of us can give patients across Wales the hope they need by joining the Organ Donor Register. I signed up, and I am urging all my constituents to act on their good intentions by taking two minutes to sign-up."

Roy J. Thomas, Chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, said: "We are in the grips of an organ donor crisis in Wales and urgency upon more people joining the Organ Donor Register has never been greater. In Scotland, 32% of people have joined the Register, yet in Wales just 27% have made that life-saving pledge.

"This isn't because people don't want to help; we know 90% of people in Wales support organ donation. It is because not enough have acted on their good intentions and signed-up.

"The brutal reality is that people in Wales are dying as a result and unless more people take that all important vital step of signing-up and telling their loved ones about their wishes then more and more people will needlessly die waiting for a transplant."

The Donate Wales campaign was launched by Kidney Wales last May and since then more than 34,000 people have joined the Organ Donor Register.

To join the Organ Donor register call 0845 60 60 400, text GIVE to 64118 or visit donatewales.org

Ends

HIGH-RES images of Sian on a dialysis machine from the advert are available.

HIGH-QUALITY copies of the advert (in both Welsh & English) are also available.

For more information or case studies contact Noel Davies, Head of Development, Communication & Events, on 029 2034 4940.

Notes to editors

Currently 494 people in Wales are listed for a transplant. This breaks down to: 443 waiting for a kidney; three for a pancreas; 18 for a kidney/pancreas; five for a heart; 14 for lungs; and 11 for liver.

2. In the last five years 768 peoples' lives in Wales have been transformed by the gift of a donor through an organ donor transplant. A further 584 have been given the gift of sight by either a cornea of sclera transplant.

3. Around 10,000 people in Wales are now suffering from some form of chronic kidney disease.

4. With Kidney Wales' support, the Welsh Assembly Government is steering forward improvements to renal care in Wales including the new renal dialysis unit at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.

5. A kidney transplant remains the best long-term hope for those suffering with kidney failure. The long-term survival of a kidney transplant continues to improve with 92% of kidney grafts from cadaveric donors and 95% of those from living donors still functioning one-year after transplant.

6. The Kidney Wales Foundation is one of Wales' oldest and biggest charities. In the 1970s it launched the Kidney Donor Card and a decade ago, established Lifeline Wales - the precursor to today's Organ Donor Register.

Kirsty Williams AM