Radical steps to boost London's organ donations

BBC Inside Out's Mark Jordan finds out why the capital's hospitals are taking radical steps to boost organ donations.

Barely a quarter of all Londoners have signed up to be organ donors.

Many refuse to become donors because they do not want to think about death or have fears about what it involves.

One thousand people a year die because of a lack of organ donations.

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Organ Donation Ad (New Zealand)

An award winning tv commercial to raise organ donation awareness in New Zealand. Directed by Cameron Duncan and sponsored by Peter Jackson (LOTR)

Celebrities Gather to Prove It!

NHS Blood and Transplant launch BME Organ Donation Campaign

A host of celebrities from the British Asian, African and Caribbean communities joined forces yesterday to launch a campaign designed to raise awareness and encourage members of South Asian and Black communities to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Pop superstar Jay Sean, TV presenters Sonia Deol and Ama K. Abebrese and singer Jaya came together at London’s Hammersmith Hospital (part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust) to ‘Prove’ they care about the lack of organ donors from BME backgrounds.

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Obesity 'almost doubles chances of developing kidney stones'

Being heavily overweight almost doubles the chances of developing kidney stones, a new study shows.

The condition can be incredibly painful and even require surgery,

A study of more than 95,000 people found that around one in 20 obese people had developed the stones, compared to around one in 40 of a normal weight.

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Kidney Stones

About kidney stones
You normally have two kidneys which clean your blood, and filter out water and waste products to make urine.

Small, solid masses called kidney stones may form when salts or minerals, normally found in urine, become solid crystals inside the kidney. Normally, these crystals are too small to be noticed, and pass harmlessly out of your body. However, they can build up inside your kidney and form much larger stones.

If a stone becomes large enough, it may begin to move out of your kidney and progress through the ureter - a tube that carries urine from the kidney to your bladder. A kidney stone can become stuck at various parts of the ureter causing pain, infection and occasionally kidney damage.

Kidney stones shouldn't be confused with gallstones, which don't affect the kidneys and are caused by raised cholesterol levels.

NHS - Join the Wall of Life

Are your Kidneys Healthy ?Take the NHS Test

Kidney disease check
People can have kidney disease and not be aware of it. There are often no symptoms until the disease is quite advanced. Use this test to see if you're at higher risk of developing kidney disease and should have your kidney function checked.

Click here for the tool

Kidney Care Cookbook WKD 2009

Kidney Care Cookbook WKD 2009: "Lawrence Keogh a celebrity chef appearing regularly on TV cookery programmes in UK, has written a lovely cookbook together with my colleague Diane Green RD for the 2009 World Kidney Celebrations. His cookbook is now online for download IN pdf format: www.worldkidneyday.co.uk/docs/KidneyCareCookbook.pdf

Marianne Vennegoor RD, Renal Dietitian UK."

Start planning next World Kidney Day now! 11 March 2010

The 2010 campaign will focus on Diabetes, the leading cause of Chronic Kidney Disease. World Kidney Day (WKD) is a global health awareness campaign focusing on the importance of our kidneys and reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide.

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Sue Townsend undergoes life-saving kidney transplant

From The Sunday Times December 27, 2009
Richard Brooks, Arts Editor

The author had the operation after her son gave up one of his organs.

Sue Townsend's body initially rejected the kidney donated by her son Sean
As Christmas presents go, it is even beyond the vivid imagination of Adrian Mole.

Sue Townsend, the best-selling author who created the aspiring teenage nerd, has received a life-saving kidney transplant thanks to her son, Sean,
who donated the organ.
(Brian Moody)

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Woman receives ‘incompatible’ kidney with ground-breaking operation

From The Times February 5, 2010

A British woman has undergone a life-saving kidney transplant after having her blood plasma frozen and filtered to ensure that the organ was not rejected.

Maxine Bath, 41, is the first person in the world to have the groundbreaking operation, which allowed her to receive an “incompatible” donor kidney from her sister despite having dangerously low blood pressure.

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Chinest herbalist admits selling pills to a woman who develops kidney failure

From Times Online February 17, 2010

A Chinese herbalist today admitted selling dangerous pills which destroyed the health of a civil servant, amid calls to regulate the trade.

Ying "Susan" Wu, of Holland-on-Sea in Essex, pleaded guilty to selling a banned substance to a woman who went on to develop kidney failure and cancer.

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Ying Wu Central News

Relief for Haiti's ESRD Patients

As this issue goes to press, thousands of rescue personnel from the United States and other countries throughout the world are engaged in relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where the death toll exceeded 100,000.

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From the February 2010 Issue of Renal And Urology News

Older patients could be receiving kidneys from older donors

Released: 2/15/2010 8:30 AM EST
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine


Newswise — One-third of people over the age of 65 wait longer than necessary for lifesaving, new kidneys because their doctors fail to put them in a queue for organs unsuitable to transplant in younger patients but well-suited to seniors, research from Johns Hopkins suggests.

Results of a study reported online in the American Journal of Transplantation show that older patients could be receiving kidneys from older donors (called extended-criteria donors, or ECDs), but instead are unnecessarily waiting longer for kidneys from younger donors

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Kidney Transplant, Sleep Disorder May Add Up to Trouble

THURSDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Kidney transplant patients with sleep apnea are at increased risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, Hungarian researchers say.

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Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

SOURCE: American Society of Nephrology, news release, Nov. 19, 2009

N.J. 1-year-old girl becomes youngest recipient in kidney donation chain

HACKENSACK -- The large white box had flown more than 2,500 miles on the red-eye from San Francisco wedged into the baggage compartment of a Boeing 737. When it finally landed in Newark at 6:43 this morning, the delivery was already 20 minutes behind schedule.

Inside the Continental Airlines office, Ruben Lambert, nervously checked his Blackberry. Finally, a little after 7 a.m., a truck that had been dispatched to the tarmac, pulled up to the office with the priority package. Juggling two boxes, the delivery man jumped out, letting the top one tumble to the ground.

"Oh my God, that’s not the kidney is it?" Lambert asked, a look of horror crossing his face.

It wasn’t, and within minutes a much-relieved Lambert, an organ procurement specialist from the NJ Sharing Network, was speeding the kidney to Hackensack University Medical Center

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'Artificial Pancreas' a Step Nearer for Children With Type 1 Diabetes

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2010) — Scientists in Cambridge have made a significant step towards developing a so-called "artificial pancreas" system for managing type 1 diabetes in children. The team has developed and successfully tested a new algorithm, providing a stepping stone to home testing for the artificial pancreas