Paul Davies AM is urging his constituents to get behind a hard‐hitting TV campaign which graphically depicts a young child on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant.
The advert, which premiered on Welsh TV screens last week
(Thursday, March 12), urged viewers to join the Organ Donor Register.
The Save Siân Campaign was launched on World Kidney Day as part of the Kidney Wales Foundation's Donate Wales – 'Tell a Loved One' organ donation drive. It has been funded by a £70,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly
Government as well as additional funding from Kidney Wales.
The advert, which can only be screened after 7.30pm because of its content, centres on a six‐year‐old girl waiting
for a kidney transplant and highlights how, because of the desperate shortage of donors in Wales, Siân faces an
agonising wait before getting that second chance a transplant would give her.
It urges viewers to Help Save Siân – played by a child actress – by joining the Register and explains how it takes just
two minutes to sign‐up. In the closing scene Siân pleads with viewers: "Don't let me die." The advert will run (on
ITV and S4C) until March 28. Viewers can also see the advert online at www.donatewales.org/savesian
Paul Davies AM for Preseli Pembrokeshire said: "There are hundreds of people in Wales in need of a transplant and
many are desperately waiting for a kidney. That is we must now start to bridge the gap between people wanting to
sign up and those actually doing it.
"Every one of us has the power to send a message of hope and support to patients in Wales by joining the Organ
Donor Register. I have, and I am urging all my constituents to act on their good intentions by taking two minutes to
sign‐up."
Roy J. Thomas, Chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, said: "We are in the grips of an organ donor crisis in
Wales and urgency upon more people joining the Organ Donor Register has never been greater. In Scotland, 32%
of people have joined the Register, yet in Wales just 27% have made that life‐saving pledge.
"This isn't because people don't want to help; we know 90% of people in Wales support organ donation. It is
because not enough have acted on their good intentions and signed‐up.
"The brutal reality is that people in Wales are dying as a result and unless more people take that all important vital
step of signing‐up and telling their loved ones about their wishes then more and more people will needlessly die
waiting for a transplant."
The Donate Wales campaign was launched by Kidney Wales last May and since then more than 34,000 people have
joined the Organ Donor Register.
To join the Organ Donor register call 0845 60 60 400, text GIVE to 64118 or visit donatewales.org