Report to the People
It Takes Minutes to Give Years
Here’s a little-known fact with which you can astound your family at the dinner table this evening: 2002 is the International Year of Mountains.
The aim, apparently, is to "raise public awareness" of mountains and mountain-related issues. Exactly what this entails, I’m not sure. How do you "raise awareness" of mountains, short of packing missionaries off to Holland to amaze the incredulous natives with photos of Ben More?
While, though, it is easy to dismiss the dedication of what can seem like every single day to some cause or other as a publicity stunt, it can be a valuable tool in focussing public attention on important, yet neglected, issues.
A good example took place earlier this month – National Transplant Week. This is an opportunity for those involved in promoting organ donation and those caring for patients who require a transplant to remind us of how important and easy it is to become an organ donor.
The Scottish Executive also used it as an opportunity to publish a set of plans to raise Scotland’s poor donor registration rate of 17%. The proposals call for a major Scottish Executive publicity drive to raise public awareness and for pupils to be educated about the subject in school. The report also wants to see "non-heartbeating donation" (where the donor’s heart, as well as his or her brain, has stopped functioning) and an increase in live kidney donation.
But it’s not only down to the government and pressure groups to make sure we know about becoming a donor. All sides of the community have a part to play in making it as easy as possible to carry the card.
And, I am pleased to report, some success is already being achieved. As you may have read in your Telegraph last week, staff at T-Mobile in Greenock recently met with a representative of the Scottish Transplant Co-ordinators Network. As a result, workers at the site could soon be able to get the facts on organ donation and register to as a donor during their tea-break.
But we need to go further. With National Transplant Week now over, the challenge is to make sure that the message does not fade. In the coming weeks, therefore, I will be contacting other major employers in the area, asking that they follow T-Mobile’s example and allow their workers to take 2 minutes which may give someone years.
For more details, call the Organ Donation Information Line on 0845 60 60 400 or log on to www.glasgowtransplant.com
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