No One Dies Waiting for an organ transplant
A free global session with doctors, faith voices, donor families and people living with a transplant. Ahead of World Organ Donation Day on 13 August.
The gap between yes and said out loud.
Ask people directly and most say they would donate. Far fewer have joined a register. Fewer still have told the person who will actually be asked.
A person makes one decision. That decision gives another person life.One donor can transform many lives
Four hours. One question.
Under the opt-out law now running across all four UK nations, adults are treated as willing donors unless they record otherwise. That change was hard won and it matters. It did not remove the family from the room.
Specialist nurses still sit down with relatives and ask what their person would have wanted. When the family knows, the answer comes quickly. When they are guessing, on the worst night of their lives, they often say no. That is where most of the shortfall actually sits.
So this afternoon has a small and achievable aim. Nobody here will try to talk you into anything. The job is to move a private, vague, generally positive feeling into one spoken sentence at a kitchen table, where it can do some good.
Every view is welcome here, hesitation included. Nobody watching will be told what to decide.
One decision. Eight people.
Heart, lungs, liver, two kidneys, pancreas, small bowel. One person who has said yes can reach eight others waiting, and tissue donation reaches many more again.
Eight is the figure carried on this year's campaign artwork. NHS Blood and Transplant's own wording is that a single donor can save up to nine lives. Either way, the point holds.
What we will actually talk about.
What really happens
The transplant process explained in plain language by the clinicians who do it, including the parts people are most afraid to ask about.
Donor families
The decision itself, and what living with it looks like years later. In their own words, at their own pace.
On the other side
People who are alive because a stranger's family said yes. What a second chance actually feels like once the novelty wears off.
Faith and belief
What the major traditions actually teach, drawn from faith voices rather than assumption. Reservations included, not skirted around.
Living donation
Giving a kidney, or part of a liver, while you are alive and well. Over forty per cent of UK donations now come from living donors.
The law, honestly
Opt-out across the UK, priority registration in Israel, and why India performs record numbers of transplants with very few deceased donors.
An ordinary Tuesday
What a transplant gives back is not drama. It is the school run, a walk without stopping, a birthday nobody expected you to see. That is what is actually waiting at the end of the conversation.
Three things. The third is the one that counts.
Tap each step as you do it
Who you will hear from.
Twelve voices across the afternoon, from the UK, India and Rotary International. All times British Summer Time.
Kirit Mistry
Senior Producer and Founder
The journey to equity in organ donation and transplantation: the role of religion and culture
Amrita Sharma
Senior Host, Healing Our Earth
The journey to equity in organ donation and transplantation: the role of religion and culture
Gurch Randhawa
Professor of Diversity in Public Health and Director
The journey to equity in organ donation and transplantation: the role of religion and culture
Olayinka Hakeem Babalola
President 2026/27, Rotary International
Welcome from the Rotary International President, by video message
Dr Sunil Shroff
MOHAN Foundation, India
Organ donation and saving lives over the last 29 years
Sunayana Singh
CEO, ORGAN · Parashar Foundation Country Rep (India) · WTGF
Team India 2027: a journey beyond survival
Capt Amarjeet Sangwan
Charter President, Rotary Club Jaipur Organ Donation
Club with a mission: the journey of Rotary Club Jaipur Organ Donation
Dr Tarun Sethi
Secretary, Rotary Club Jaipur Organ Donation, India
Club with a mission: the journey of Rotary Club Jaipur Organ Donation
Kishor Suryawanshi
Founder, Chhaya Kidney Foundation
Don't retire after transplant. Re-fire after transplant
Rtn Bhal Chilana
Founder and President, The Cause Travellers Social Welfare Organisation
Organ donation awareness: India to the UK
Rtn Lal Goel
Rotary Club of Organ Donation International
Rotary and organ donation, worldwide
Kirit Mistry
Founding Charter President 2025/26, Rotary e-Club of Organ Donation UK
Building satellite e-clubs for organ donation in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
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Join Us Live Sunday, from 2pm BST
Free, open to everyone, no registration. Bring the person you have been meaning to have this conversation with.
