22 August 2018
As part of this year’s Donation Awareness Week, Jersey General Hospital is organising their inaugural ‘Gift of Life’ service at the Town Church on Saturday 8 September at 2.30 pm.
During Donation Awareness Week there will be a focus on the need for people and families to talk about organ donation to help save lives. Recently, there has been a tremendous amount of media coverage, social media activity and support for the plan to ‘opt out’ instead of ‘opting in’ as is the current process in Jersey. A proposition for the introduction of a system of ‘deemed consent’ was passed by The States Assembly in April and the new approach is expected to come into force in July 2019.
Revd Tracy Bromley, Chaplain at the General Hospital, said “This is the first service of its kind in Jersey, and it will be a celebration of the gift of life for all those families who have considered donation and a remembrance of those who have made that gift possible.
Revd Maureen Turner, Lead Chaplain, added “The service will draw together four strands of people who are involved in organ donation in some way – those who have benefitted from a donation, those families whose loved ones gave organs, those who perform transplant operations, and those who are on the waiting list, hoping for their ‘gift of life’.”
Neil MacLachlan, a Consultant at the Hospital and father of a recipient of a donated organ, said “The loss of a loved one is always terrible, but if someone else salvages a life that was fast slipping away from them, then this final act of generosity and love from the donor is truly an amazing thing. There can be no greater a gift. It seems only right that we reflect and pay respect to those and their families who have both lost love ones or friends and also celebrate the new life of those who have been given a second chance to live.”
The service will be open to everyone, especially those who have been involved in organ donation.
gov.je