A significant lack of child organ donors meant children and their families were waiting for a life-saving donation that, tragically, sometimes does not come. With this urgent need, the campaign intended a direct response, gaining more registrations on the NHS Organ Donor Register. Results showed a 10% uplift in under 18 opt-in registrations.

In the UK, child organ donation is a double opt-in system. Any family can join the NHS Organ Donor Register at any time, but if a child is eligible for donation, parents are asked a second time in hospital for their consent. Registering as an organ donor ensures that families are more likely to consent and increases the number of potential donors in a year.

• Situation: 233 children are on the waiting list for an organ donation in the UK. NHS Blood and Transplant have an urgent shortage of donors, with consent rates lower among younger age groups at just 52%. To give these children a higher likelihood of finding a lifesaving donation, the campaign urgently needed to change attitudes and encourage families to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

• Brief: The brief was to make this invisible wait public, telling the real-life stories of children currently on the waiting list. By showing the world the wait these children face in the most unavoidable and poignant way, we could help end it and increase the likelihood of finding lifesaving donors.

• Objectives: The campaign set out to raise awareness of the children on the waiting list, changing attitudes towards paediatric organ donation and encouraging more families to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

233 bespoke dolls representing 233 children on the transplant waiting list, appeared in waiting rooms in hospitals and GP surgeries across the UK. NHS Blood and Transplant created a powerful campaign in November 2023 to raise awareness for the 233 children waiting that centred around this emotive stunt. Visitors were able to scan a QR code via a doll’s badge to learn more about the children's stories and register as organ donors. The installation was accompanied by TV, OOH, cinema, press and influencer activity, generating a reach of over 1.5 billion people and a 10% uplift in under-18 registrations on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

True stories of children on the organ donor waiting list were gathered as well as medical research into the barriers to donation. Families across the UK are currently 50:50 on consenting to child organ donation. We needed to target parents of under 18’s to change attitudes and gain more registrations on the NHS Organ Donor Register. Our approach was to make the invisible wait faced by 233 children, visible, and tell their real-life stories. We aimed to support this emotive approach with a call-to-action for parents to ‘Help end the wait – register your child.’

233 bespoke dolls, representing 233 children, appeared in waiting rooms of hospitals and GP surgeries. The installation was accompanied by TV, OOH, cinema, press and influencer activity. The campaign ran from 20 November until 31 December 2023. Media aimed to reach families across the UK, appearing on ITV and Sky as well as in medical environments where health as top of mind. The campaign generated 1.5 billion impressions through earned media alone with integrated executions across earned, paid and owned media.

1.5 billion impressions through earned media alone

£14.6m earned media value

5000+ under-18 donor registrations

10% lift in under-18 opt-in registrations

-18% drop in under-18 opt-outs

115% rise in website visits

Each visitor listened to 3 stories on average