Recycle Yourself: Why I Don’t Want My Organs Going To Wastefeatured

Ever since I was a child the subject of organ donation has been something that has both broken my heart and filled me with positivity in equal measure. I don’t know when I first decided to join the organ donor register, but I remember watching an episode of Casualty with my mum and being amazed that the death of one person could save the lives of so many others.

Straight away I knew I wanted someone else to have my organs if I didn’t need them any more. After all, what could I possibly use them for if I was dead?

As I’ve grown older, organ donation has continued to be subject I’m extremely passionate about. The first thing I think of when someone dies is ‘I hope they were able to give their organs, if that’s what they wanted’.

When my Nanna died of cancer in 2012, not only was I upset at having to see her suffer towards the end of her life, but I also felt that no good was coming from her death. The cancer had spread so severely that she couldn’t have donated her organs even if she had of expressed a wish to do so. I wanted so badly to find a positive and I really think I would have found comfort if a part of her could have been used to give someone else life. Of course, my Nanna was old, so she’d had a good run and had made good use of her organs herself. Unfortunately though, thousands of young people die each year and their organs, in a way, go to waste.

I’m terrified of death but as crazy as this sounds, the one thing that scares me even more is the fear that I might die in a way that leaves me unable to give my organs. What if I die of cancer? What if I die outside of hospital and it’s too late for them to save my organs? I know such thoughts are irrational, silly and pointless, but that’s just how my morbid little brain works.

Each year approximately 1,000 people die waiting for an organ transplant. However, only 4% of people regularly give blood and just a third of people are on the organ donor register.

Unfortunately, many people on the register are likely to die in circumstances that leave them unable to donate. As a result it’s unsurprising that there’s a shortage of available organs for those who need them the most.

Furthermore, since it’s ultimately up to the family of the deceased to decide whether doctors can take their loved one’s organs, sometimes those who had signed up for organ donation could die without being able to fulfil their wish.

For this reason it’s vital that we not only sign up for the register, but we also tell everyone we know just how important organ donation is to us.

If you like the sound of dying a hero, you need to be vocal about your wish.

• Abruptly tell your family at the dinner table.
• Add your wish to your Twitter bio.
• Spread the word on Facebook.

A lot of people avoid talking about organ donation because they think it’s morbid and depressing. I understand that people don’t like thinking about their own mortality, but the longer we avoid talking about it, the more people die.

This could happen to any one of us. One minute we could be perfectly fine and living life to the full, the next we could find ourselves in dire need of transplant.

I’ll leave you with one final thought: If you’d be willing to accept an organ, you should be willing to give one too.