Organ donation law awareness campaign 'huge challenge'

The Welsh government has run a campaign letting people know of the coming changes

Raising awareness of organ donation rule changes is a "huge challenge", a public relations expert has said.

Health Minister Mark Drakeford has urged families to discuss their views on donation, 100 days before Wales adopts a system of presumed consent.

Bethan Lewis of Cardiff-based Brighter Comms welcomed hard-hitting TV adverts as necessary to make people think.

"You're relying on the public to take action at a time when the message may not seem relevant to them," she said.

As well as TV advertising, a roadshow has been touring supermarkets across Wales to raise awareness of the new system, which comes into effect on 1 December.

'Sensitive issue'

Known as a "soft opt-out" system, people are invited to register their wish to donate their organs or not, with the assumption that they consent to donation if they do not register a view.

The Welsh government said 39,500 people in Wales have registered their wish to opt out of organ donation from December, while 1,062,000 people were currently registered as donors.

Ms Lewis told the Sunday Supplement programme on BBC Radio Wales: "Research shows that we have to see an advert seven times before it sinks in.

"So it's clear that the advertising campaign needs to continue in the run-up to the change, across as many channels as possible."

Mike Stephens, a consultant transplant surgeon at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, said: "We want to encourage families to have this conversation before they die so that families can be sure of the wishes of their relatives."

He added that families would still be consulted about donation following a death, but said use of the register would make "a sensitive issue easier to discuss".