Why You Should Join LifeSharers

An organ transplant could save your life some day -- if you're lucky enough to get an organ.  But your odds of getting one aren't brilliant.

LifeSharers can improve your odds.  Here's why that's important:

• New Zealand has the lowest organ donor rate in the Western World.

• In 2006 there were just 25 organ donors in New Zealand.

• In the past 6 years the transplant waiting list has doubled.

• There presently around 2000 people on dialysis.

• In 2006 there were 330 deaths of people on dialysis.

• In 2006 there were 433 people on the waiting list for a kidney. Only 41 kidney transplants were done. (Not including live donors.)

• In 2006 the number of transplants performed were at the lowest level in 14 years.

• In 2006 the number of 'new' patients entering renal failure programs was 484. A rate of 117 people per million of population. The organ donor rate was 6 per million of population.

• There is no way to register as an organ donor in New Zealand.

• You, or a family member are more likely to need a transplant than to become a donor.

The organ shortage gets worse every day.  But when organs do become available, many of them go to people who haven't agreed to donate their own organs when they die.  That's not fair.  By joining LifeSharers you help make sure that you'll get treated fairly if you ever need an organ.

LifeSharers rewards the generosity of organ donors by giving them fair access to organs.  This reward becomes more meaningful every time someone joins LifeSharers.  When LifeSharers has a million members, for example, our members will have fair access to two million kidneys, one million livers, one million hearts, two million lungs, and more.

By directing their donation first to fellow members, LifeSharers members also create an incentive for others to register as organ donors and join LifeSharers.  As the LifeSharers network grows, the strength of that incentive grows too.  So your membership will encourage others to join, and save lives.  And who knows, the next life you save may be your own.

Learn more about how LifeSharers works.