Updates

Kidney charity opens first Scots shop at Elgin

Fundraisers help transplant and dialysis patients throughout the country

By heather baillache                                        

Published: 08/08/2009

Kidney Support Scotland, which helps transplant and dialysis patients up and down the country, is to move into the former Victoria Wine unit, which has been empty for nearly two years.

It will be the eighth charity to open a shop on the High Street.

Kidney Support Scotland was launched 10 years ago at Peterhead by Margaret Winney, but moved its base to Coulardbank industrial estate in Lossiemouth seven years ago.

A Glasgow office was also set up in 2002.

Three staff and a large team of volunteers have until now focussed their fundraising through collections door-to-door, at supermarkets and at events such as the Black Isle Show.

The charity helps kidney patients who have had dialysis treatment or transplants all over Scotland, and gets referrals from hospital staff if a patient needs support or even a short break.

Silver Sands Caravan Park at Lossiemouth donated a caravan earlier this year and the charity also rents a caravan in Nairn.

Charity founder Miss Winney admitted the move to Elgin was “a bit daunting” during a recession, but said it was “now or never.”

She said: “We’ve been talking for years about having a shop but it was not something we have really concentrated on because we’ve been so busy.”

The move was welcomed yesterday by the Moray Chamber of Commerce and another charity shop manager nearby.

Moray Chamber of Commerce events executive Lesley Ann Parker said: “At this point in time anything that is done to raise the look of the high street is an asset, and filling empty shops is definitely an improvement.”

Across the road, Cancer Research UK shop manager Val Wilson said: “I think it’s a good thing for all of us because we get a lot of regular customers, so it’s somewhere else for them to go.

“We just reached £1million after 10 years in this shop, so I’m sure they will do well.”

(sourced from The Press and Journal {Elgin})

{Information Sourced from the BMJ, Apr 09}

Timing and whether a transplant coordinator makes the request are key factors in whether relatives consent to organ donation, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

Demand for organs far exceeds supply and in the UK this results in one patient on the transplant waiting list dying every day. One of the biggest barriers to increased donor rates is the refusal of consent by relatives.

A recent audit of 341 deaths in intensive care units in the UK revealed that 41% of relatives of potential donors denied consent. In an interview study a third of relatives who had refused donation said that they would not refuse again, whereas only a few of people who had given consent regretted their decision.

Lead author Dr Duncan Young, from John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, believes that given the refusal from relatives blocks so many transplants from going ahead, it is important to find out what factors would help them uphold the wishes of their next of kin.

The authors carried out a review of 20 studies on organ donation to investigate what factors either encouraged or discouraged relatives to consent. Two issues had the strongest effect on relatives: timing and the person making request. It is essential that a request for organ donation does not take place when notification of death is communicated to relatives or when brain stem death testing takes place - it is very important that there is a gap between ‘bad news' and a request for donation, say the authors.

The person making the request is also key and the study concludes that in an ideal situation a donor transplant coordinator together with hospital staff would make the request.

The following issues were also significantly linked to relatives denying or allowing donation to go ahead: the level of information they were given, how they perceived the quality of care given to their loved one, understanding what brain stem death actually means, the setting for the request (a private location is best), the approach and expertise of the individual and giving families enough time to consider the request.

The authors conclude that although their findings may be "unsurprising," implementing them may increase donation rates and ultimately save lives. They argue that "organ donation may be of sufficient benefit to society generally, and to organ recipients specifically, to justify the study and modification of organ donation requests to maximize consent."

In an accompanying editorial, Teresa Shafer from the LifeGift Organ Donation Center in Texas, says that requesting consent for donation is not simply "popping the question" but rather "a dynamic process consisting of observation, collaboration, planning, and action that is based on family and hospital dynamics."

She argues that hospitals and organ procurement organisations need to work together to increase the number of organs available and that "the donation request is too important to delegate to those who are not expert, prepared and focused on a successful outcome."

Contacts:
Research: Dr Duncan Young, Consultant in Critical Care, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
Email: duncan.young@nda.ox.ac.uk