Organ donation special church service

Organ donation special church service

‘Gift of Life’ will be the first service of its kind in Jersey and will take place during Donation Awareness Week as the Hospital tries to encourage more people to consider organ and tissue donation.

This year’s awareness week follows a change approved by the States in April which will make organ donation automatic unless people specifically ‘opt out’ by signing up to a register.

At the moment, there are 18,965 Channel Islanders signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register, of which the islands are a part, but it is hoped the number will rise dramatically when the ‘opt out’ programme comes into effect next July.

Organisers of the church service are now hoping to get more families talking about organ donations before the change.

Hospital chaplain Tracy Bromley said the service is intended for families that have considered donation as well as a ‘remembrance of those who have made that gift possible’.

‘The loss of a loved one is always terrible, but if someone else salvages a life that was fast slipping away from them, then this final act of generosity and love from the donor is truly an amazing thing,’ said Neil MacLachlan, a consultant at the Hospital whose daughter Catherine’s life was saved by a heart transplant.

‘There can be no greater a gift. It seems only right that we reflect and pay respect to those and their families who have both lost loved ones or friends and also celebrate the new life of those who have been given a second chance to live.’

The service is due to be held on 8 September at the Town Church at 2.30 pm.

Lead chaplain Maureen Turner said it will draw together four strands of people involved in donation – ‘those who have benefitted from a donation, those families whose loved ones gave organs, those who perform transplant operations and those who are on the waiting list, hoping for their gift of life’.

As of March of this year there were ten people in the Channel Islands waiting for a transplant.

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