Wall of Life aims to boost organ donors
23 Jun 2009 10:16 AM
A new campaign is aiming to raise awareness about organ donation by creating an online 'mosaic' of 60,000 photographs.
The interactive Wall of Life campaign was launched today by the UK-wide NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).
The campaign aims to promote awareness of and support for organ donation to boost the number of people joining the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR).
The Wall of Life is an online mosaic created from people's photos posted on the site to show their support for organ donation.
These photos come together to make up the image of two-year old Louisa McGregor-Smith, whose life was saved by a heart transplant in 2007 at just five months old. At least 60,000 people need to upload their photos on to the Wall to build Louisa's image.
People joining the Wall of Life can then pass details to their friends and families to download a personalised 'widget' on their social profiles and websites, spreading the message across social networks.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "I am fully behind the Wall of Life campaign, which is an innovative way of using technology and social networking to raise awareness about organ donation.
"I'll certainly be uploading my picture to the Wall and I'd encourage everyone else to do the same.
"Every person who signs up to the Organ Donor Register as a result of this drive is helping to save lives."
The Wall of Life has been created as part of a national campaign to highlight the constant need for organs in the UK. More than 10,000 people currently need a transplant operation, of whom 1000 - three a day - will die before an organ becomes available.
Scotland has an ambitious target to reach a donor rate of 24 per million by 2013. This goal was set following a report from the UK Organ Donation Taskforce in November 2008.
In May this year, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon told a conference that Scotland's organ donation rate had hit a 10-year high. In the year to April 2009, there were 72 deceased organ donations in Scotland - a rate of 14.1 per million of population, up from 9.8 per million two years previously.
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