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Be a Superhero - Save a lifeTSR Wiki > Life > Health and Relationships > General Health > Be a Superhero - Save a life
The 'Superhero' roadshowNHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)’s, Organ Donation and Transplantation Directorate’s 'Superhero' roadshow is hitting the road with a tour of 15 universities across the country, inviting student freshers to heroically pledge the ‘gift of life’ by joining the Organ Donor Register (ODR). Students visiting the Freshers’ Fair roadshow will also be able to find out more about the superhero-me.co.uk online marketing campaign. Users of the web-based application can turn themselves into superheroes, join the organ donation register and spread the word by passing it on. And thousands have already done this since superhero-me was launched at the V Festivals. Why should I sign up?NHSBT’s Organ Donation marketing and campaigns manager, Angie Burton, said: "Students don’t have to be able to run faster than a speeding bullet, have X-ray vision or climb buildings to become a superhero and help save lives. Instead, it takes another kind of superpower – to use our generosity of spirit and give the ‘gift of life’, to help others to live on after our deaths." "It does not take much to demonstrate this power; all we’re asking is for students to join the 15.6 million other ‘superheroes’ who have already joined the ODR and to discuss their wishes with their families." "More than 7,890 people in the UK are currently waiting for an organ transplant and the sad fact is that over 1,000 of them will die while waiting due to an acute shortage of donors." Gareth Barham, aged 18, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, had a life-saving heart transplant on 22 December 2004, after a six-month wait. He had suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy after being attacked by a mystery virus. Within weeks, he was hardly able to climb a flight of stairs and doctors told him a heart transplant was the only option. Gareth, who is off to the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent, to study a three-year degree in stage management, said: "The transplant operation literally saved my life. My old heart wouldn’t have lasted many more weeks. I never thought I’d need a transplant as I never had any medical problems before the virus attacked me. After having months of hospitals, drugs and not even being able to walk up and down a simple flight of stairs, the phone call telling me there was a heart waiting was the most incredible moment of my life." "Without that heart, I would be dead by now, yet I’m off to university to study a physically demanding course, four years after not being able to get myself out of a chair. I cannot ever express how much gratitude I feel towards the donor and their family, they have given the ultimate gift." Coming to a University near youThe Superhero roadshow will this year visit the following universities:
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