It’s that Pink week again. Organ donation awareness week. There could be a building or two near you that is proudly wearing pink to provoke a conversation or two. There will be a lot of information, stories, photos and videos on social media and in the press. Maybe TV and radio mentions. Banners and billboards. Posters on buses and in bus shelters. In some places there will be reminders on petrol pumps and beer mats. Some of us might even be wearing pink…
Not the Space Station, just Meadowhall, Sheffield, dressed in pink to support organ donation…
This year, Northern Ireland joined the rest of the UK, and various other countries, in changing from an “opt-in” system to “opt-out”. Instead of having to sign the donor register (we still can), we are all now presumed to be consenting organ donors, unless we opt out, or are in any of the exempt categories. It doesn’t mean we are donors against our will, or against the wishes and sensitivities of our families. Consent will always be sought from our families and without it organ donation will not proceed. That makes it just as important, if not more so, to let our families know what we would choose, and to have thought about it all before we are ever in that demanding situation.
With help from a few friends, Live Loudly Donate Proudly will post a blog each day this week. Something to help a conversation, help keep us in the pink.
It may be that a conversation that starts this week is the one that saves a life you love…
*That building…is…Meadowhall, Sheffield…