For the second year running, staff, teams and individuals supporting NHS Forth Valley have swept the board in the 2023 Race for Recipients challenge.

The annual event, which runs alongside Organ and Tissue Donation Week, challenges NHS teams to reach a number of targets, each representing meaningful milestones. These include travelling a distance of 9km over the week to represent the 9 lives that can be saved by one donor to travelling 7000km to represent the 7000 people currently waiting for a life-saving transplant in the UK.

Through a combination of walking, running, swimming, skating and cycling, NHS Forth Valley chalked up 24,649 km over the week, more than double last year’s total.

Dr Abigail Short, NHS Forth Valley’s Clinical Lead for Organ Donation and Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthetics, said: “It was great to see people from all areas of Forth Valley join us to help clock up the kilometres. There was great enthusiasm and a chance to enter into a friendly UK-wide NHS competition.

“Special mention has to go to David Ross and Peter Beatty for travelling a phenomenal 1554km between them. NHS Forth Valley has definitely stamped its mark on this competition and I would like to thank everyone who to part this year and helped achieve such as fantastic result which we can all be proud of.”

You can find out more about the event and see the results of all the winning teams here.

During Organ Donation Week, work was also undertaken to highlight the stories of local patients who have benefitted from organ donation including Salma Hussain who has benefited from a donated kidney and pancreas. As of yet, she has not met the donor family but says she will always be grateful for another chance at life.

To register your donation decision and find out more about organ donation visit Organ Donation Scotland or by calling 0300 123 2323.