A major campaign to tackle the growing ethnic minority 'donor gap' in the black and south Asian communities is launched today by UK Transplant.

Black and Asian people are over three times more likely to need a kidney transplant  than the general population, and their chance of a successful transplant is greater if they can be matched with a donor from the same ethnic group.

But with black and Asian people accounting for fewer than 2% of deceased organ donors, transplant patients from these communities have to wait up to twice as long as others for a suitable donor to become available.

The latest figures show that Asian people wait an average of 1,496 days for a kidney transplant and black people an average of 1,389 days. In contrast, white people wait an average of 722 days.

The campaign - titled 'Can we count on you?' - urges black and Asian people to help tackle this ethnic minority donor gap by signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR).

The number of black and Asian people joining the ODR has increased in recent years, but demand for donated organs is rising.  There are currently 1,403 black and Asian patients listed for a transplant, of whom 1,342 need a kidney and the remaining 61 are waiting for liver, lung, heart, pancreas or heart/lung transplants. 

The campaign also seeks to dispel some common myths that are known to affect donation rates, including people's assumption that there are religious objections.

Here to talk about the issues of organ donation in the black and Asian communities is comedian, Curtis Walker, and UK Transplant spokeswoman, Tamsin May.