Facebook to promote organ donation

The world's biggest social network will allow members to share organs through a donor link

Facebook enables us to share photos and keep in touch with friends but now we will also be able to share our organs via the social networking site.

Inspired by his late friend Steve Jobs, who received a liver transplant before his death last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced the addition of an organ donor update to the site.

The move will allow Facebook users, who are already organ donors, to add the information to their Facebook Timelines.

From today, members of the site will be able to add their thoughts on organ donation by clicking on the health and well-being section on their timeline but will not be on the official register until they sign up.

Sally Johnson from NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) hopes the Facebook initiative will make more people sign the organ donation register.

'This is an exciting new way to use the power of social media to reach a huge audience and encourage people to think about it, act and share information,' she says.

Around 10,000 people need a transplant in the UK and three people die every day on the donor waiting list.

'We hope that as a result of this partnership, UK Facebook users will together be able to reduce the number of people who needlessly die waiting for an organ each year,' says Facebook's UK director of policy Simon Milner.

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