Shropshire residents near top of UK’s organ donor chart
People in Shropshire are among the most willing in the UK to donate their organs, it has emerged.
The county is fifth in the UK rankings when it comes to citizens being registered, while a part of London has the lowest number.
The stark variations in the number of people registered to be donors have been revealed in a new colour-coded map.
A tool, created by mapping and analytics company Esri UK, shows which regions of the country have the highest proportion of organ donors and the lowest.
According to data from May, 61 per cent of people in Shropshire are on the organ donor register – the fifth highest region in the UK.
Jess Houghton, technical research consultant at Esri UK, said: “Mapping complex data in this way makes it easier for the public to see how many people are on the organ donor register in their area and compare it with the rest of the country.”
According to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), as of August 31, there were 25,661,697 people on the organ donor register across the UK.
Anthony Clarkson, interim head of organ donation and transplantation at NHSBT, said: “We recognise that there is a disparity in the numbers of registered donors between urban and rural areas.
“We don’t fully understand why more people in rural areas have joined the register and we welcome the debate.
"This is one of the drivers for Organ Donation Week – to get people to talk about it and register so we can save more lives.
“People need to tell their family they want to save lives through organ donation.
"Words save lives.”
In Barking and Dagenham in east London, just 16 per cent of people are registered to donate organs in the event of their death – the lowest in the UK.
South Hams in Devon has the most people registered on the organ donor register at 71 per cent.
The map can be found at: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Styler/index.html?appid=44a3f48caae14bee8a7bb82ad1115a5b
It was recently revealed that 38 people across Shropshire were saved thanks to an organ transplant last year.
Families are being urged to talk about their options as part of Organ Donation Week, which takes place from September 3 to 9.
There are currently 6,000 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant across the UK.
Nationally, around three people die a day in need of an organ.
For more information or to register as an organ donor visit organdonation.nhs.uk
