A free event open to Brent residents is being held at Brent Civic Centre to mark the start of Organ Donation Week on Wednesday 12 October.
The event, hosted by Brent Council’s health inequality programme Brent Health Matters, will provide the facts about organ donation so that people can make an informed decision. Residents of the borough who have donated organs, been recipients of organs and those who have had to make decisions about their relatives’ organs will be telling their stories.
There will also be a premiere of a film featuring local people recounting their experiences and a Q&A session with participants. Presentations from experts will include details from a transplant surgeon from Northwick Park Hospital.
Cllr Neil Nerva, Brent’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Adult Social Care, said, “Organ donation is a real health inequality issue because people from black and Asian backgrounds are far more likely to need a donated organ in their lifetime.
“At the same time, people from those communities are far less likely to donate and this can mean people in need having to wait significantly longer for a transplant. It is obviously a personal choice as to whether you donate your organs or not, but we want everyone to understand the impact and make an informed decision based on the facts.”
In a borough as diverse as Brent the disparities around organ donation are much more pronounced. For this reason, the council and local health services are keen to make sure local residents make careful considered decisions about what they want to happen to their organs after they die.
The situation was not helped by the pandemic when transplant surgery was interrupted. It means that there are currently over 6,500 people waiting for a transplant in the UK and around 30% of them are from a BAME background. Given people from a BAME background make up only around 14% of the population of the UK, that’s significantly high.
Family consent rates for organ donation stand at 36% for people from a BAME background, compared to 75% for white eligible donors. Again this stark variance can make a huge difference as ethnicity is a significant factor when it comes to whether organs are suitable for those people in need of an organ.
The event is free and open to all Brent residents and is taking place in the Boardroom 3 at Brent Civic Centre on Wednesday 12 October – arrive at 5.45pm for a 6pm start. At the end of the event at 7.30pm attendees will witness both the Civic Centre and the Wembley Stadium arch lit up pink to mark the occasion.
Organ donation was recently the topic of discussion as part of the monthly Brent Health Matters Health Hour show on local radio station The Beat 103.6FM – a recording is available on the council’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/5jvpscsjJS4
More statistics and information is available on the NHS Blood and Transplant website at www.organdonation.nhs.uk