27th March 2023

The recently formed All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion (ETT) announced the launch of Parliamentary Inquiry into the access to donors for those from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

The Inquiry was announced at the Groups inaugural launch in Parliament today to an audience in excess of 120 guests including donors, patients, donor and patient families, clinicians, charities, national donor registers, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), Department for Health and Social Services (DHSC), MPs and Peers.

Attendees were welcomed by award-winning TV presenter Jay Blades MBE and the Chair of the Group, Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, introduced the speakers:

● Jabeer Butt OBE, Chief Executive, Race Equality Foundation
● Professor Gurch Randhawa PhD FFPH DL, Professor of Diversity in Public Health and Director, Institute for Health Research
● Jay Patel, the father of Aari Patel who donated 7 organs and saved the lives of 2 other children, after he tragically passed away at the age of three

Announcing the Inquiry, Sarah Olney said “We live in an increasingly diverse world. Whilst 18% of the UK population is from an ethnic minority, this becomes 34.5% for pupils in primary and secondary schools. The NHS is not prepared for this diversity. Our NHS is focused on meeting the health and care needs of all people, however when it comes to transplant and transfusion, stark healthcare inequalities exist for mixed and minority ethnic patients. Because nothing can happen without a donor.

Our Group’s inquiry will explore why it’s so much harder for patients from diverse backgrounds to find suitable donors and make concrete policy proposals to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to find a donor irrespective of their ethnicity.”

Yaser Martini, from the charity Team Margot Foundation, said “Today’s event and the coming together of so many of those involved with and responsible for blood, organ, stem cell and bone marrow transplant and transfusion across the UK, illustrates the desire within this community to deliver a future where every patient, regardless of their ethnicity or heritage, is able to receive the same opportunity to benefit from a suitably matched transplant or transfusion.”

Click here or on the above image to download the booklet presented at this inaugural stakeholder meeting

For more photographs from this event, click here.

About: Team Margot Foundation (charity no: 1160236) provides secretariat support to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion to raise awareness of health inequalities and to promote policy change to help save and improve more lives through greater ethnic donor participation.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion Executive members are:
Honorary President – The Baroness Benjamin DBE OBE
Co-Chair – Sarah Olney MP (LibDem)
Vice Chair – Bambos Charalambous MP (Lab)
Vice Chair – Mark Tami MP (Lab)
Officers:
Feryal Clark MP (Lab)
Fleur Anderson MP (Lab)
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
Marsha De Cordova MP (Lab)
Sir Peter Bottomley MP (Con)

Yaser

Husband to Vicki and father to Oscar (2007), Rufus (2008), Digby (2015), Humphrey (2017) & Margot (2012-2014)