A new effort is being launched by hospital specialists in Bradford to persuade more people to become organ donors.

Staff in the kidney unit at St Luke's Hospital will host its first evening for Asian patients and their families next month amid increasing concern over an ever-growing backlog of people waiting for transplants.

They will highlight the benefits of living donors offering a kidney to help patients who have waited sometimes more than five years for an organ swap.

The move is part of a national campaign to increase the number of people on the organ donor register and will be followed next March by the first national multi-faith conference to be held in Bradford which will further highlight the issue. There are 45 people waiting for kidney transplants alone in Bradford, half from the Asian community which has higher levels of kidney disease.

Steve Bell, regional transplant co-ordinator based at St James's Hospital in Leeds, said families would be given information about the difficulty matching kidneys from people with European backgrounds who had died - which make up the bulk of donations - with Asian patients.

Evidence showed a kidney from a living-related donor was more likely to be a match and more likely to be successfully transplanted.

"We really think this could help the Asian population, particularly with their extended families with siblings or parents giving a kidney," he said.

Dr Robin Jeffrey, consultant in renal care, said the influential Muslim Shariah Council had backed organ donation.

"My own view is that live donation is the future because we're not getting donor organs through donor cards," he said. It was hoped the multi-faith conference would look at the religious or cultural barriers which prevented people giving organs.

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