Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Organ Donation team have been honoured for their dedication to organ donation and transplantation after being recognised in the annual Rosie Neath Award.
The team were named as ‘Highly Commended Runner-Up’ in the Rosie Neath Award for Outstanding Achievement in Organ Donation at the North West Organ Donation Collaborative in Manchester, after being recognised for their ‘Race for Recipients’ initiative, which raises awareness of organ donation.
New Non-Executive Director, Dr Tim Ballard, Specialist Organ Donation Nurses, Karen Sutcliffe and Nicola Downey, and Clinical Lead, Dr Cath Roberts, were in attendance, as they showcased the initiative.
Race for Recipients is a transplant-focused national initiative which is now in its third year and was devised, and is run, by a small team - the majority based at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.
It started as a way of people being able to raise awareness of organ donation - in the first year, 1,000 people signed up to take part, and in the last two years it has become a national challenge. In 2022, 2,400 people signed up, growing to 7,500 this year.
The aim of the challenge is for teams to ‘race’ towards a target distance of 7,000km, which represents the number of people waiting for a life-saving transplant in the UK.
There are also a series of interim goals or ‘meaningful milestones’ to keep people motivated along the way. These all represent key numbers related to organ donation, for example, one donor can save up to nine lives, or that there are 200 children waiting for an organ transplant.
There is also a regional target of 50,000km, which represents the number of people alive today thanks to an organ transplant.
The distance travelled can be done by any human powered activity – walking, running, cycling, swimming. All distances count, from a 1km dog walk to a 100km bike ride and beyond. Awareness of organ donation is raised by people sharing activities on social media and encouraging conversations, with an
overall aim of increasing donor register sign ups.
Dr Cath Roberts said: “This is something we are all passionate about and are already thinking about how to grow it further next year.
“I am so proud of what our small team has achieved. This is our second award as we also received a highly commended in the ‘Exceptional Promotional Initiative’ category at the UK awards for Excellence in Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation, held in March this year.”
The Rosie Neath Award is presented in memory of a young woman from Blackpool who was both a transplant patient and an organ donor. Rosie was born with Cystic Fibrosis and had a double lung transplant. She actively supported the promotion of organ donation and transplantation.
Rosie’s transplant was successful but a few years later the transplant failed due to rejection. When Rosie died at the age of 29 on October 1, 2017, she then became an organ donor.
The testimonial on the award read: “The Race for Recipients team are creating a movement of awareness for organ donation through a fun and informative means that many people can relate to. Recruiting more than 7,000 participants nationally in Race for Recipients 2023, and destined to grow further in 2024, it also created a bit of healthy competition between hospitals and regional teams and got people moving!”
Picture: Specialist Nurses Nicola Downey, Chelsea Whittle and Karen Sutcliffe, and Consultant Dr Cath Roberts.
