National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week – Sign for Life!

Québec City, April 17, 2016 – During National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, on now until April 24, Héma-Québec would like to re-emphasize the importance of signing the organ and tissue donation consent form that comes in the mail with your health insurance card renewal notice and letting your family know what your wishes are.

A single person can improve 20 lives through tissue donation and save eight others through organ donation. Although most people in Québec say they agree with the principle of organ and tissue donation, only one in three has joined the RAMQ’s donor registry (Registre des consentements au don d’organes et de tissus). Add to that the names in the donor registry established by the Chambre des notaires du Québec, and an estimated 3 million people across the province have formally consented to leaving a legacy of life.

The generosity of organ donors and the families who honour their choice is instrumental in allowing Héma-Québec’s to fulfill its role as a supplier of human tissues. This precious gift has the power to restore health and hope for people suffering from illness or injury. One universal message, multiple digital platforms Organ and tissue donation is something that touches everyone around the planet, as is illustrated in a video entitled The Man and the Dog, produced by the Fundación Argentina de Trasplante Hepático and used with permission by Héma-Québec and Transplant Québec to raise public awareness. The video will be shared on social media.

For more on organ and tissue donation consent, go to signezdon.gouv.qc.ca.

About Héma-Québec

Héma-Québec provides Québec hospitals with human tissues for transplant purposes (including skin grafts, heart valves and musculoskeletal tissue such as tendons and bones) and also collects eye tissue for use in corneal transplants.

Héma-Québec’s mission is to efficiently meet the needs of the Québec population for safe, optimal-quality blood and blood products, human tissues, cord blood, mother’s milk and cellular products; and to develop and provide expertise and specialized, innovative services in the field of human biological products.

Give human tissues. Give life.

– 30 –

Source and information

Héma-Québec
Media line: 514 832-0871
www.hema-quebec.qc.ca