From Wednesday March 22 to Sunday March 26, 2023, a team from the Rouen University Hospital is taking part in the 36th Heart Race to raise public awareness of organ donation and, in particular, the importance of kidney transplantation.
The “Grefons d’or” will run for 4 days and 4 nights from Paris to Les Arcs via Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
These 14 health professionals come from the nephrology, endocrinology and clinical genetics departments of Rouen University Hospital. They are mobilizing around Prof. Dominique Guerrot, at the request of the Trans-forme association, organizer of the Course du Cœur.
Throughout this 750 kilometer route, these athletes will inform the public about the importance of organ and tissue donation and, in particular, about the need for kidney donation.
In 2022, 92 kidney transplants were performed in Rouen, a third of them thanks to living donors. A very insufficient number.
“Nearly 300 people are waiting for a kidney, explains Charlotte Laurent, nephrologist at the Rouen University Hospital and participant in the Course du Coeur. There is a shortage of grafts because not enough is taken. Yet donation can save a patient’s life. It is very important to remember that you can donate during your lifetime provided that a non-family emotional bond for more than two years has been established. We can therefore help a friend, a colleague, a neighbour. You really have to talk about it when everything is going well so that there is no longer any taboo on this subject. »
Raising awareness of organ donation therefore remains more important than ever because the activity has still not returned to its pre-Covid level (5,901 transplants in 2019 and 6,105 in 2017). More than 27,000 people need an organ transplant and each year more than 200 people die because they did not receive a transplant in time.
More information on organ donation on the organ donation website
