Who Can Donate
Can I be a donor if I have an existing medical condition?
You can actually go on to the organ donor registry even if you do have an existing medical condition due to the fact that you are only registering your wishes; that if anything is suitable for use for organ donation, you are willing for it to be used. It will be up to the medical staff at the time of asking to decide if anything is suitable for use.
Can a child be a donor?
There is no upper or lower age limit for organ donation for transplantation. We do have children waiting for organs. We've had a child of 2 months old with a heart that had to come from a donor. Thankfully the family at the time of their bereavement have thought about others and have actually donated the organs.
Is there a minimum age to join the NHS donor register?
There is no upper or lower age limit on organ donation for transplantation. The oldest donor that we know of at this time was 106 and she donated her corneas and gave sight to two people. And as far as the lower age limit, no there is no lower age limit because we are still desperately looking for organs for young children.
Can older people be donors?
Yes they can, older people can be donors. They can donate their corneas which will give sight to two people. This has been done by people of over 100 years old, so there is no upper or lower age limit.
Is there a shortage of any particular group of donors?
There is a desperate shortage of ethnic-minorities who are donating their organs after their demise. We have an increased amount of people of ethnic-minorities such as Asian and Afri-Caribbean on the organ donor waiting list, waiting for kidneys. So, to get people in those ethnic minorities to donate is one of our major aims at the moment.
