Transplant Campaign

Help us provide Addenbrooke’s Transplant department with cutting edge equipment, the best patient environment and the latest research at their fingertips.

The internationally acclaimed Cambridge Transplant Centre treats more than 300 patients a year, who receive replacement livers, pancreas, small bowels, or kidneys. They provide highly specialised care for patients with actual or suspected abdominal organ failure for much of the east of England and beyond.

As more transplants are being carried out –  as well as the forthcoming opt-out system for organ donation – ACT wants to ensure that the hospital is ready for this increased demand. The charity would now like to support improvements that will ensure that patients and the relatives visiting them in hospital are more comfortable, such as making our patient day rooms more homely as well as providing a brighter, more comfortable space for patients being assessed for a liver transplant.

Thanks to our supporters, we’ve been able to invest in two ground-breaking methods that provide more accurate testing of livers and kidneys, helping to ensure that no organ is wasted.

• Liver perfusion – has effectively meant we can ‘test-drive’ livers on a system mimicking the body and ensure their functionality before transplant. This has meant that livers that would have previously been deemed unsuitable for transplant are actually found to function well enough for them to be transplanted.
• We’ve also been able to support a nationwide clinical trial that aims to increase the number of kidneys available for transplant. The so-called PITHIA trial aims to improve the evaluation of kidneys pre-transplant by examining biopsy samples. We were able to purchase the specialist biopsy sample scanners for the five specialist transplant centres. If successful it could enable as many as 125 additional kidney transplants every single year.
• ACT has supported the creation of additional high dependency isolation beds on the transplant wards, helping to ensure the hospital can manage increased volumes of transplant patients.

Your donation could help transplant patients, and many others across the hospital, by helping develop new techniques in surgery, respond to the clinical needs of tomorrow and make an excellent ground-breaking service even better.

Please donate today to help make Addenbrooke’s even better – thank you.

To find out more, please contact us at hello@act4addenbrookes.org.uk or call 01223 217757.