Blackpool Tower to be lit pink to mark Organ Donation Week

The resort’s Teachings Hospitals Trust aims to make the most of the iconic seafront landmark as buildings around the country turn pink to mark Organ Donation Week, which runs to Sunday, October 2.

Pink is the colour of the country’s ‘Yes I Donate’ organ donation campaign, to inspire people to tell their families that they want to be a donor and to register their decision.

Dr Jason Cupitt, Clinical Lead for Organ Donation at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: "Organ donation saves lives. It is the most precious act that one person can do for another.

"We need to talk about it with our friends and families, so that we can make the right decision for everyone at a difficult time.

"Organ donation week raises awareness and celebrates the gift of life, and remembers both the donors and recipients of organ donation.

“I am looking forward to seeing the iconic Blackpool Tower raising awareness of organ donation. I am certain it will look fabulous and I am sure thousands of people going past will ask questions.

“Sadly, many opportunities are lost every year in Blackpool and the Fylde and around the country because families don’t know if their loved one wanted to be a donor or not.”

Nationally, someone dies every day in need of an organ, and there are almost 7,000 people currently on the active transplant waiting list.

There are currently more than 30m people in the UK who have registered their organ donation decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register with more than 27m of them explicitly agreeing to be an organ donor when they die, but this still only represents around 44 per cent of the UK population.

Anthony Clarkson, director of organ and tissue donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “It’s brilliant of Blackpool Teaching Hospitals to show its support for Organ Donation Week. The modern organ donor card is pink, and it certainly gets conversations going.

“We need people in Blackpool and the Fylde to not only talk to their families about organ donation, but to register their decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register. This could be the difference between life and death for someone else.”

In addition to the Tower lighting up, the occasion is being marked with a special event at the organ donation sculpture near the main entrance at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Friday at 11am.

A wreath is being laid at the sculpture by Alan and Barbara Neath, and Josephine Haythornthwaite.

Alan and Barbara are the parents of Rosie Neath, from Blackpool who was born with Cystic Fibrosis and was a transplant patient and organ donor after passing away in October 2017.

Josephine, a volunteer at the Trust, will be making a speech in memory of her late husband John who was an organ donor.

Blackpool Tower will turn pink between 7.15pm and 11.30pm.

Donations decisions can be registered at at www.organdonation.nhs.uk