The week that was...National Transplant Week

It was a while ago we know, but we’ve been so busy we haven’t actually had time to blog about what LLTGL got up to!

As always, our biggest contribution to NTW was our PR campaign. Some of you kindly shared your stories with us, so we could, in turn, get them out to regional and national media outlets to raise awareness about Organ Donation and the wonders a Transplant can bring

We had 10 PR volunteers this year, and with the help of PR consultant Sarah Milne, between them they managed to get their story out to over 8.5 million people. Hits included Victoria Tremlett and Jen Grannell in the Mirror, Victoria Glen and Gerard Falsey in the Glasgow Evening Times, Lucy Spaull in the Richmond and Twickenham Times, and our very own Chairman Emily in Boots Health and Beauty Magazine.

We are hugely grateful to everyone who has shared their story with us at any point in time; statistics are helpful, but hearing a real story, a real example of just how important Organ Donation is, can be so much more powerful. If you would like to help us by sharing your story, please get in touch via the contact page on our website.

To help maximise online awareness, we had an image designed which we hoped a few people would share on their facebook pages and twitter profiles. The concept was far more popular than we could have hoped, and literally hundreds of people had changed their profile pictures to the image (below) by the middle of the week.

Throughout NTW, we were tweeting key facts about organ donation and transplantation. Our fabulous Ambassador Victoria Tremlett worked extremely hard sending tweets to celebrities, and got a fantastic response. Thanks to Tor, the LLTGL tweet team, and other supporters, celebrities promoting NTW included Duncan Bannatyne, Jason Manford, Lorraine Kelly, Sarah Brown, India Knight, Bill Bailey and Sheridan Smith.

The celeb supporters’ combined followers (therefore people who can see their tweets) add up to over 1.8 million, so a fantastic result! Hundreds of you also retweeted our messages (our most popular one was retweeted 167 times), and we are hugely grateful to each and every one of you for helping us spread the word.

A massive thank you to every single person who helped us support National Transplant Week - it was a huge success and really pushed Organ Donation into the spotlight. We're already looking forward to next year!