NHS Uses Tinder To Find Young Organ Donors

Dating app Tinder has partnered with NHS Blood and Transplant to bring attention to long waits for donor matches.

Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing, Olympic Gold Medallist Jade Jones MBE and Emmerdale’s Gemma Oaten are all in support of the initiative. They all have profiles that appear on Tinder with ‘The Wait’ logo to help draw attention to the importance of organ donation. Tinder is promoting the campaign to its UK users who are 18- to 35-year-olds, which is an important group of people for the NHS.

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Users who swipe right over the next fortnight will match with these profiles and receive a message that says: “If only it was that easy for those in need of a life saving organ to find a match.” They will be told there are thousands of people waiting for a transplant, be encouraged to say “Yes I donate” and click on the link provided to sign up on the NHS Organ Donor Register to increase the chance that patients in the future will receive the organ match they need.

Tinder is helping to promote organ donation during NHS Blood and Transplant’s campaign, ‘The Wait’, to draw attention to people waiting for a transplant and the fact that many people die before an organ match is found for them. There are just under 7,000 people currently on the UK transplant waiting list. In the last decade more than 6,000 people across the UK have died while awaiting an organ transplant.

Hermione Way, Tinder’s head of European communications said: “We’re delighted to have teamed up with NHS Blood and Transplant to help save lives. Tinder users regularly make the decision to swipe left or right wondering whether someone may be the person they are looking for. While those swiping decisions are important and could be the first step to a successful relationship, we hope that the NHS profiles featuring Jamie, Jade and Gemma will encourage people to make and act upon a different decision too – to sign up as an organ donor.”

Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing said: “I think it’s a fantastic idea: using Tinder, one of the UK’s most popular apps, as a platform to help the NHS raise awareness about organ donation and literally save lives! I’m super excited to be a part of this campaign.”

Olympian Jade Jones said: “I got involved in this campaign as it’s a great way of reaching out to young people in all corners of the UK and raising awareness about organ donation. It’s also the season of giving so hopefully we’ll get even more people signed up thanks to Tinder!”

Sally Johnson, director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant said: “Educating and encouraging people to sign up for organ donation – that’s what our partnership with Tinder is all about. While a third of the UK population have registered their intention to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register, millions more support donation but haven’t taken the final step to sign up. With the help of these bespoke profiles on Tinder, we’ll grab people’s attention and throw a spotlight on the importance of organ donation. Joining the register takes only a couple of minutes – about the same amount of time as a few swipes on Tinder. The best part is knowing that you could save or improve up to nine individuals’ lives in the future.”

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk.

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