Organ donation team set to shout its cause from the mountain tops

Members of Swansea Bay’s Organ Donation team are setting their sights on climbing the highest mountain in South Wales in order to raise awareness of how we may be able to save a life after we have gone.

Jess Becker and Damien Stevens will be part of a 100-strong party aiming to reach the summit of Pen y Fan, in Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), on Friday, 27th September, as part of the NHS Blood and Transplant’s Organ Donation Week 2024 (23-29 September).

Once at the summit they will unfurl a huge banner encouraging us all to have a conversation with family and loved ones around organ donation.

Agreeing to allow your organs to be used to help others after you are gone has the potential to save and transform the lives of up to nine people.

The law in Wales changed to ‘deemed consent’ in 2015.

This means that unless you sign the national organ donation register to say you’re happy to donate some or all of your relevant organs, or alternatively, state you’d prefer not to, by expressing neither preference it will be assumed have no objection to your organs being donated. Specialist Nurses, will always ask for a patient’s loved one's for agreement regarding organ donation. 

However, having a conversation and making your decision known regarding organ donation will mean a conversation between your grieving loved ones and a Specialist Nurses  will be easier.

Damien, a specialist nurse for organ donation, said: “The South Wales Organ Donation Services Team are all very excited about the Turning the Peaks Pink Challenge.

“Organ donation teams throughout the UK are scaling the mountains - Pen y Fan, Yr Wyddfa in Snowdon North Wales, Scotland’s Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in England, Slieve Donard, in Northern Ireland, and Snaefell, on Isle of Man – dressed in pink, all with the aim of being all at the peak by 2pm, to mark organ donation week. 

“We’ve got 100 people, made up of members of our organ donation teams and committees, our wonderful donor families, as well as recipients and their families, hiking up Pen y Fan that day.

“We want more people to be aware of organ donation and to be open to the discussion. Increasing our consent rate nationally is our focus, so we want more people to have these conversations, to be on board with it, have a bit more understanding and sign the register, so it is not a shock to people when it is mentioned.

“We’re also going to be promoting the week with stalls and a presence in Singleton, Morriston and Neath Port Talbot hospitals and we are lighting local buildings and our hospitals in pink to get people talking.”

Almost 8,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for a transplant that could change their lives and the lives of family and friends. .

Damien said: “Organ donation is life-saving and life-enhancing for recipients – some could be on dialysis three or four times a week for years and it’s very debilitating.

“If they receive a kidney transplant, they have a new lease of life, free of illness and can spend more time with their families, their children, their loved ones, living a life they love. 

“Illness can have a negative impact on not just the individual, but those that surround them also, but the same goes the other way, a transplant can save an individual's life and have a positive knock-on effect and impact to those they love too.

“It is very important to us to continue to promote organ donation and show continued thanks to the wonderful donor families. Without them, their strength and their support in organ donation many of our organ recipients wouldn't be alive today. They live because of a donor family's generosity in their time of grief.

There can be positives from both sides of the coin in organ donation.

“It is also important to highlight the work that we do as Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation that the public are not necessarily aware of,” added Damien.

 “For families who have supported organ donation the legacy that their loved one has left behind is huge and will never be forgotten.”

Jess said: “There is nothing more certain in life than death, talking about death should not be a taboo subject, it should be the norm and organ donation discussions and decisions should be amongst this.”

“Within the Organ Donation Team in South Wales our focus is to increase our consent rate, which in turn increases the number of lives saved through organ donation.”

On a personal note Jess is looking forward to the physical challenge of the climb.

She said: “I’ve done Pen y Fan before but only with my family, so it will be nice to go up with 100 people – a big event for a big cause!

“Ynysowen male voice choir will be there to sing us home, to add to the spectacle along with a splashing of Welsh Pride.”

To find out more about organ and tissue donation visit the NHS Blood and Transplant website here - Organ Donation.