Petrol pumps used to promote organ donations

The pumps will carry the message to promote the start of Organ Donation Week

Petrol stations are helping to promote a campaign to increase the number of registered organ donors.

Pump handles at garages in Scunthorpe, Hull and Beverley will have advertisements to mark the start of Organ Donation Week, which runs from Monday.

NHS Humber Health Partnership said more than 7,900 people in the UK were waiting for a transplant, the highest figure for a decade.

Helen Russell, specialist nurse in organ donation at Hull Royal Infirmary, said: "We've chosen really busy petrol stations with around 50,000 motorists passing through each week so we get the message out to as many people as possible."

Ms Russell added: "Signing the organ donor register leaves your family certain about your wishes regarding becoming an organ and tissue donor and takes away a difficult decision to make in such a hard time for them."

Twenty families have consented to organ donation between April last year and August this year at the region's hospitals, Humber Health said.

Across Yorkshire, 373 patients received a life-saving transplant in 2023 and 2024.

More than 100,000 transplants have been carried out nationally since the creation of the Organ Donor Register in 1994.

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