Donor Cards have been around for a long time, and saved so many lives; it is clear that carrying one is a wonderful thing to do. Yet still the majority of people don´t have a donor card. It takes so little time to sign up for one, and has such amazing benefits. If you haven´t yet registered, here are some compelling reasons why you should get a donor card right now …
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1. Saves Lives
It should go without saying that donor cards save lives; but here´s a reminder. The first successful kidney transplant was carried out in 1954; with 3,700 transplants carried out in the UK alone in 2009, hundreds of thousands of lives must have been saved over the years. Maybe even millions! So carrying a donor card is an amazing thing to do.
2. Sauce for the Goose
Let´s suppose that you were unfortunate enough to be in need of a transplant. You´d want a donor organ, which would require someone to have been prepared to carry a donor card. So, if you want someone to do it for you, then it´s only fair that you are willing to be a donor yourself.
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3. Numbers Game
There are thousands of people waiting for a transplant at any one time, and the sad fact is that not all of them will find a suitable donor in time. Even if someone is a registered donor, death may not take place under circumstances that allow donations to take place. Plus there is the difficulty of finding a match. So the more people that register as a donor, the higher the chances of those on the list getting the transplant they desperately need.
4. One Donor, Many Lives
One donor does not equal one life saved. In fact, one person can save several lives. Their liver, kidneys and heart can go to different people, plus other organs can be used. Even if certain organs can´t be used, other parts, such as the corneas, can still be used to improve someone´s life. It´s sad when someone dies before their time, but families often draw comfort from knowing that their loved one helped to save other lives.
5. Improvements
Transplant techniques are improving all the time; we have recently heard of the first full face transplants, something which was unimaginable only a short time ago. With the growing skills of surgeons and improved medication, patients are living longer and more organs and body parts are able to be used. This is making a huge change to the lives of those patients – and all thanks to those people who allowed their body to be used after their death.
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6. Make Your Wishes Known
Death is, let´s face it, a fact of life, and it´s going to happen to us all. So if you feel strongly about being a donor after your death, then carrying a donor card makes it clear that this is what you want. Without that card, your family may not know that you wanted to be a donor, and your organs will go to waste when they could have been used to save lives. Getting that card means that your family are aware of your wishes.
7. Quality of Life
There are few alternatives to transplants. Patients with kidney failure, for example, have to undergo the debilitating experience of dialysis. It keeps them alive, but a transplant will give them a new lease of life altogether. Similarly, corneal transplants don´t save lives but they do give people the opportunity to have their sight restored, which will make an amazing difference to their quality of life.
If you don´t already carry a donor card, then I hope that I have convinced you that it is an amazing thing to do. So don´t waste time – if you support organ donation then sign up as a donor right away. There are so many people that have reason to be grateful for the skill of the surgeons and the people who believed in donating their organs. Do you already have a donor card, and if not, what has put you off?
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