Facebook helps spread the transplant message
Online social networking site Facebook is helping to spread the message for people who need life-saving transplants. *
Traditionally, sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo are used by people to stay in touch with each other.
But the reach of Facebook in particular has seen many successful campaigns launched to inspire people to join online groups such as tissue transplant, bone marrow and blood donor groups, and to ultimately become members of the relevant transplant registers.
Joining the registers helps to widen the pool of available donors and increases the chance of a match being found for patients.
Sheffield’s hugely successful Westfield Health British Transplant Games had a vibrant online presence this year. Next year’s event in Coventry will see an even bigger presence through the popular networking sites to help the Games reach an even wider audience.
The aim of the Games is to raise awareness of organ donation, to show that patients can lead a normal life after transplantation and to encourage people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Last year 25,000 people signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register thanks to the Gift of Life Campaign, run in partnership with The Sheffield Star newspaper, but the viral nature of Facebook should lead to even more people finding out about next year’s Games, potentially encouraging a record number to become organ donors.
The British Transplant Games Facebook group can be found at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6232512575 – and keep checking the Westfield Health website for more news on next year’s Games.
References
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/15/facebook-transplant-donor-campaign
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