First Organ Donation Booth in Mall Launched

In an effort to raise awareness of kidney disease and encourage organ donation, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of Malaysia has launched an organ donation promotion unit at Sunway Pyramid with the support of Sunway Group.

Located at CP3 of Sunway Pyramid shopping mall, the organ donation promotion unit is the first of its kind in a shopping mall in Malaysia. Full-time healthcare professionals from NKF’s Public Education Department will be employed at the organ donation promotion unit to provide easily accessible information for organ donation and allow visitors to sign up for organ donation.

The official launch was officiated by the guest of honour, Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Datuk Seri Razman M. Hashim, Deputy Chairman, Sunway Group.
Funds for the organ donation promotion unit came from the NKF Charity Dinner organised by Sunway in May last year. The charity dinner raised RM750,000 that went towards the establishment of the organ donation promotion unit.

“Sunway Group has long supported and commended NKF in their continued efforts to fight against kidney diseases through preventive education,” said Tan Sri Datuk Seri Razman M. Hashim. “Through the organ donation promotion unit, we hope to do our part towards heightening public awareness of organ donation and improving the quality of life for kidney patients.”

A total of 19,474 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, with the numbers of kidney failure patients increasing every year. In comparison, only less than 1% of Malaysians has registered as organ donors as of July 2015, pointing to a severe shortage in the gift of life for many end-stage organ failure patients.

Organ transplant is the only long term solution for many kidney patients in terms of quality of life and cost effectiveness. End-stage kidney failure patients have to spend their whole lives going for expensive and time exhausting dialysis treatments while waiting for the rare chance of finding an organ donor.

“For many end-stage organ failure patients, organ donation remains their last chance of survival but unfortunately, the limited availability of organ donors and misconceptions around organ donation have made finding a suitable donor difficult,” said Dr. Thiruventhiran Thilaganathan, Vice Chairman of NKF. “With that, we are grateful to Sunway for their generous support in giving us this opportunity to highlight the urgent need of organ donation.”

The organ donation booth is the newest addition to NKF’s continuous efforts to advocate for the early detection and prevention of chronic kidney disease. Since the organ donation campaign as supported by Sunway Group started in January 2015, NKF has received 1,033 organ pledges from members of the public.
For more information on National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of Malaysia, please visit http://www.nkf.org.my or call 03-7954 9048.