Actor Kulvinder Ghir joins forces with transplant patients

in new TV Campaign to encourage more Asian donors.

Established actor, Kulvinder Ghir has joined forces with NHS Blood and Transplant to lend further support to a new campaign designed to increase the number of people from BME communities on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

The actor features alongside patients with first-hand experience of organ donation and transplantation to create a series of powerful and informative television commercials for both the African-Caribbean and the South Asian community. In his capacity as campaign ambassador, Kulvinder highlights the key facts and statistics surrounding organ donation within the Asian and Black communities, whilst the patients bring these statistics to life through their own personal experiences.

Actor and star of Goodness Gracious Me, Kulvinder Ghir says: “I feel proud to be a part of this campaign as it is a serious issue which we all need to be aware of. The statistics really speak for themselves – the Asian community is three times more likely to need a kidney transplant, but less than 1% of us are on the NHS Organ Donor Register. If there is a time that your race matters it is now – a transplant is more likely to be successful if the donor is from the same ethnic group.”

The television commercials also showcase real life case studies that have been affected by organ donation, both successful transplant patients and those still waiting for a life-changing transplant.

Pete Kumar, aged 35 has been waiting for a transplant from the young age of 21. As a result Pete needs dialysis three days a week and this has had a large impact on his family as they have had to deal with the good and bad days. Still not having received a transplant, Pete has had to struggle for 14 long years with no donor coming forward with a perfect match.

Good friends and kidney recipients, Jatinder Kaur and Vandana Sharma are featured in the Asian television commercial. Having been on dialysis for a large part of her life, Vandana has under gone two kidney transplants and since July 2008 she has been able to enjoy a healthy life.

The campaign highlights that people from the South Asian and Black communities living in the UK are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant but just 1.2% of people who have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register are from the South Asian community.  Due to the shortage of compatible donors, South Asian and Black patients on average have to wait nearly twice as long as a white person for an organ to become available.

Make sure you look out for these television commercials which will be airing from Monday 8^th March.