Ethnic minorities urged to become organ donors

22 March 2007

A CAMPAIGN to get more organ donors from the Asian population of London's poor East End districts is being kicked off by UK Transplant.

The charity is sending leaflet and poster teams to 5,000 black and Asian businesses, community centres and places of worship up and down the country as part of an awareness drive.

One of the 'target' teams is coming to the East End to urge Asian and other ethnic men and women to consider organ donation to tackle a widening gap in 'ethnic matching.'

Blacks and Asians are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant than the general population, says the charity.

Ethnic communities account for fewer than two per cent of donors in the general population, with transplant patients usually waiting twice as long as others for a suitable donor to be available.