National Transplant Week 2006
The theme of National Transplant Week(NTW) 2006 was ‘You don’t have to be a hero to save lives’ and has been shown to be one of the most successful themes, campaigns and posters that Transplants in Mind (TIM) has produced in its 16-year history.
ITN in conjunction with TIM and UK Transplant produced a week of news items broadcast both on lunchtime news and evening news every day of NTW. Within this campaign ITN regional news teams also broadcast local stories every day of the week. TIM worked closely with its members to obtain stories for these interviews. On the 6th July the Launch of NTW was held at the House of Lords where ITN’s Sue Saville took the opportunely to interview members such as Deepak Mahtani of the South Asian Development Partnership (SADP) for broadcast to help launch NTW. The outcome of the ITV campaign alone lead to over 60,000 registrations to the Organ Donor Register – a record figure!!
Over 2,000 posters were sent out to doctor’s surgeries, schools and businesses all over the county. Calls were received at the TIM office purely to request the poster, which increased the coverage of NTW beyond our normal distribution.
NTW Posters were also displayed as a banner on the side of the Donor Bus for the photo call with Travel West Midlands (TWM). All TWM buses displayed the NTW poster during and after NTW.
The launch at the House of Lords included presentations by Emily Thackray (CF Patient), Carole Davidson (HTFT), Deepak Mahtani (SADP) and Christopher Lillicrap (Live Life Schools project). The launch was well attended and gave TIM the opportunity to network with representatives of a number of the major pharmaceutical companies, member organisations, and potential new supporters. Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Health, was unable to attend the event but sent a message of support for the Week.
GMTV provided 3 days of coverage on the Monday – Wednesday of NTW. Their breakfast coverage included interviews with those waiting a transplant, donor families, John Wallwork and Sue Johnstone.
Numerous Radio and Newspaper interviews were carried out by Sue Johnstone during and after the week.
During NTW Better, a play written and directed by Glen Mortimer, a kidney recipient, was performed at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in London. The cast included stars such as Abigail Fisher (Emmerdale and Hollyoaks), who showed their support for this worthwhile cause. All proceeds of this performance were donated to TIM.
HTFT organised a Walk from Brighton Pier to Worthing Pier which received coverage from local press and also was filmed for ITV National Transplant Week coverage.
Other events during the week included the launch of the book “Will I still be Me” by transplant recipient Diana Sanders.