Live window display in Kent encourages shoppers to become kidney donors

John Burns told ITV News Meridian's Tony Green it's amazing to think his kidney is keeping someone else alive.

Three kidney donors will be putting on a special shop window display in Kent, encouraging people to think about becoming a living donor.

Sales shoppers at the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Dartford will get more than they bargained for as, instead of buying, they're faced with the question of giving.

Three men who each donated a kidney will stand inside a shop window alongside six mannequins, representing the six people who die each week in the UK waiting for a kidney.

Each of the figures are seen lifting up their t-shirts to reveal the question “is it in you to save a life?”.

The New Year’s campaign launched today, Friday 3rd January, with Kidney Research UK and Give a Kidney.

The shop facade itself has also been given a makeover and transformed into a giant t-shirt with the window displaying the shocking statistic.

Shoppers are invited to complete a survey where people can consider if it’s inside them to donate a kidney.

There is also a mirror installed for shoppers to use to encourage a brief moment of self reflection on whether they could consider living kidney donation.

Among the living kidney donors is John Burns.

He said: “In 2017 I read an article in a national newspaper about a woman who had given a kidney to someone she didn’t know, and it instantly struck a chord with me. I did some research into the process and after meeting kidney recipients at an event and hearing directly the impact this had on their life, I knew it was something I had to do."

“I feel so honoured to be asked to be part of this valuable campaign as I know from personal experience just how life changing giving a stranger your kidney can be. Most of the good things people would like to do, they can’t because of other restrictions such as financial or skill set, but giving a kidney, in my opinion, is one of the best long term-good acts someone can do, if they are able."

“I hope that by standing in this window at least one person will decide to become a donor and that even if no one there and then does so, that they will go home and talk about it. The more people who talk about it, the more people who know about it, the more that kidney donation drifts out of the realm of extreme altruism and into the normal range of what people can do.”

The installation is part of its national campaign, Make Your Mark, which was launched by the charities Kidney Research UK and Give a Kidney earlier this year, as part of the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation.

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