nero

I know that as a UK expat I cannot give blood which is a great shame but I wanted to know what the situation is with regards to Organ Donation. I have always been happy to donate and in NZ there is a severe shortage. So I wrote to the Organ registry and this is what they said -

The answer is that in NZ with your history of living in the UK and risk of CJD, you would not be able to donate skin or heart valves. But for other organs, including eye tissue, this is assessed individually and would include your medical and social history plus any other infectious disease screening. Simply by living in the UK would not rule organ donation out.

You can state that you wish to become a donor when you get your kiwi driving licence or by letting your family know or by adding it to your timeline on FB or you can check out their website [URL="http://www.donor.co.nz/"]http://www.donor.co.nz/[/URL

Stormer999

Sssssooooo! are all non UK born nationals spending time in the UK bringing their own blood supplies so that they are not risking infection with mad cow disease that our dirty food producers subjected us to.......?

love30stm

didnt know we couldnt give blood!??

Stormer999

Unclean......

Caz8NZ

yup - cause of mad cow disease (or the more technical term that someone else said) - its a good thing for me as i'm very needle phobic so at least I have a great excuse to not give blood rather than just being a wimp!

Jan n Neil

Iv,e ticked the donor box on my licence no body said i couldn't ??????


Neil

nero

There is no problem with ticking the donor box on the licence and it is great that you have. You just need to be aware that if you died (hopefully not for a very long time) your medical history would be taken including where you have lived, past medical history etc from your relatives as part of the organ harvesting process. It just means that you may not be able to donate all that you thought you could, although this may change with time

Stormer999

Ok mate they'll use your bits for other expats with suspect mad cow tendencies...

All Kiwi's holidaying in the UK have to carry their own box of spare organs in case of emergency so not to get as mad as us lot.....

Caz8NZ

yip.

very dangerous living/visiting 3rd world UK

sparkie down under

I used to give blood in the UK, and I'm sure that it was scanned for mad moo moo, (but I might be wrong)

Caz8NZ

Yup but that doesn't matter.they have a policy here that they just won't do it if you lived in the uk between certain years. Sad

skybluestu

Bloke in my street has Mad Cow disease, I don't know his name but he rubs his head against my gate every morning......



I'll get me coat.....

mickey_d

No it isn't yet, they are still developing a test.

Bo-Jangles

Really, how long do they have to check? If I got bits of me swept up of off the road from a RTA, how much time do they have to decide?

I have very little medical history here and they can't even check your records if you move between different areas in this country as there is no central NHI reference system. If you move to a different DHB or get sick off of your own patch then nobody knows who you are or if you are eligible for treatment, let alone if you come from a 'safe' country.

I believe it's an honesty policy with regards the giving of blood, if I didn't tick the box that says I had lived in the UK between the given dates, would they actually know or bother to find out?

sparkie down under

What was that little extra bag for then, or where the greedy buggers taking a bit more than the usual pint

I'm sure the lovely nursey woman used to say it was for testing purposes - which included MMM, (MadMooMoo)

See never trust a woman in uniform