Charity aims to tackle health inequalities by educating Black and Asian school children about organ donation

A healthcare charity is planning to set up centres in two South London hospitals to inform people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds about organ and blood donation.

We Are Donors received funding from the NHS’s Community Investment Scheme to tackle health inequalities in March 2021.

The organisation, which already has centres across the UK, aims to use the money to set up in St George’s hospital and King’s College hospital.

From there they will recruit university students as volunteers, who will go into local schools to deliver workshops and assemblies about organ and blood donation.

Charlotte Brathwaite-Shirley, who is the Financial Lead and a trustee at We Are Donors, said: “We wanted to increase our reach to the BAME groups living in London as they have to wait significantly longer on the transplant list.

“We want to go into the schools and talk about organ donation and help them understand. Hopefully by educating and informing students we can increase the proportion of black and Asian people who, even if they don’t donate, will maybe have a conversation with their families and be a bit more open about organ donation.”

The volunteer teams will give unbiased information about what organ donation is, why it’s important and answer any questions that school children may have.

Although there has been an increase in donors from Black and Asian backgrounds in recent years, the rates are still much lower than white donors.

In 2019 to 2020, 42% of eligible Black and Asian people agreed to donate, compared to 71% of white eligible donors.

People from Black and Asian backgrounds often have to wait much longer to receive transplants.

As of 29 February 2020, there were 1,909 people from BAME communities actively waiting for an organ transplant – the highest number for 5 years.

Black, Asian and minority ethnic patients represent almost a third of those waiting for a lifesaving transplant.

Often the best match for a transplant comes from people of the same ethnic background.

Not knowing if their relative wanted to be an organ donor is one of the most common reasons for refusal, leading to around 130 Black, Asian and minority ethnic families to say no to donation over the last five years.

We Are Donors was set up in 2016 by university students in order to educate and inform school children about organ and blood donation.

Since then, they have spoken to more than 4,000 students across the country.

The Community Investment Scheme is part of a Government-funded campaign led by NHS Blood and Transplant with support from the National BAME Transplant Alliance to address the urgent need for Black, Asian and minority ethnic donors.

Other South London based organisations that received funding are the Africa Advocacy Foundation and the Sikh and Welfare Research Trust.